


The Salt Skin

by hariboo



Category: Thor (2011)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, post film
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-03
Updated: 2011-10-02
Packaged: 2017-10-24 06:31:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 44,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day Sif walks to the edge of the Bifrost to see compelled to see where Loki had fallen. At the same time Jane is testing a way to open the Bifrost. By accident Sif falls to Earth, what happens after she never would have expected, and then she finds Loki. Post-film.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is fic owes a lot to a lot people, namely Sif and Loki, this perfect, ridiculous and accidental ship, but to all the people that put up with me having a feelings breakdown over it. It went through roughly three rebirths until it all clicked and even now I know there’s more here than I could get to but then it would have been about 80k words of feelings at that point. I luckily had three wonderful people that supported me in this that made my words make sense. demonqueen666, r_b_rackham, and little_giddy all @lj. Trust me when I say this fic would be far worse without them. Any remaining issues are all me.
> 
> Fic note: I call Frigg(a) the Allmother in this fic, which isn’t supported by either comic or mythology, but let’s call it my own personal bit of canon seeping in. The title comes from the Ellie Goulding [The Salt Skin](http://cl.ly/2J3P171P122N2W0G3G1e) which was very important for me thematically.

There was too much going on around her, but she’s used to it. It's the way of the battlefield. Today however, she was not surrounded by armour clad men or Valkeries today. They are warriors, the people around her, though not in the strictest sense of the word. Then again, according to most Asgardian customs she, was not what they imagined a warrior to be either.

Lights and fires were seemingly everywhere, she could hear Jane shouting at Darcy and she heard as Darcy screamed back in reply. She felt the energy they were trying to control and contain dance wildly around her, filling the air with static and tension, ready to pop and implode, taking them all with it. They only had this chance. This one chance to fix it.

She was ready for what she had to do. Her hand tight around her glaive, she was ready.

It was then she heard something else.

Selvig yelled. The sound ripped from his throat across the open space. One word, a warning.

Immediately Sif turned to where Selvig was looking.

There he was, smiling that insufferable smile of his, his eyes bright with magic and energy. He had something in his hand she could not see, but it did not matter, because she knew.

She knew what he was going do and it was then that her voice joined the rest of the sounds around them.

Her yell echoed in the wind.

 

 _weeks before_

 

Sif stirred in her bed, twisting herself in her covers, fighting of the call of dawn and the sounds of the palace as it woke around her.

Once, she wouldn’t have been able to even fathom the idea that she would ever feel comfortable within a royal palace’s polished walls and high ceilings. But now the same halls were as familiar to her as the ones in her parents’ home; some days more so — though she would never say such a thing out loud in her mother’s company.

It was long ago she moved into her quarters at the palace. Considering her status within the court and her friendship with the princes, it didn’t make the situation uncommon. The Warriors Three also had quarters within the palace walls, as their friendship with Thor gifted such a luxury, but she knew they did not use them as habitually as she used hers. Volstagg had a wife and an ever growing brood of children while Fandral and Hogan at times found life in the palace stifling.

It was not that Sif disagreed, but despite all the affection she had for her parents, her home life had never been easy. The rigid structure of court was one they adhered to.

One she quite consciously did not easily fit into.

Waking up now to the sounds of the guards walking the grounds and the servants in the hall was commonplace, yet today their sounds were too loud in her ears and head. Sleep was not leaving her without a fight and her dreams had been unsettling and dark. Shadows had twisted in her mind and reminded her of things and people she was better not thinking about.

Memories of easier days within these walls; of cool fingers at her wrists.

Flinging her covers off in an angry swipe of her arm, Sif rolled out her bed and curled her lips in distaste. Such thoughts only served to make her chest tighten as if there was a heavy weight resting on it. This only served annoy her further.

She couldn’t help it though. She wished she could.

Moving to her wardrobe she let her shift drop, picked out her clothes, dressed, and only paused at her vanity to tie her hair back. She let her eyes flicker over to the small silver box on her dresser. Brushing it with her fingers, she curled them back into her palm and clenched her hand into a fist.

Without another glance at her room she let the door shut behind her and forced the thickness in her throat away. Her hair swung determinedly behind her.

 

—

 

She made her way to the training area. At this time there should be an early group of guards and she if was lucky Thor would already be there warming up.

A morning spar was just what she needed. She needed the focus of battle.

 

—

 

Her morning was routine. She had not expected it to be otherwise.  

Thor indeed had been with the morning group of warriors and together they had cleaned ranks, as they usually did, when they fought together. It had taken away the tension of her dreams that had settled between her shoulders and after they broke fast with his mother. It was not a strict tradition, especially with Thor, but one both mother and sons— _son_ , Sif thought bitterly, lately did not seem to miss.

As she sat, hair damp and sweat still drying on her tunic, she greeted the queen with deep grin and slight bow. The Allmother touched her palm against Sif’s cheek briefly before turning to greet her son. Thor pressed a loud kiss on his mother’s cheek and with an exaggerated demeanour pulled her chair out, making the queen grin at his antics. Sif smiled to herself and sat to the queen’s left side, Thor dropping to his seat in front of her.

It was casual. The morning breeze fluttered across the balcony, the food was laid out neatly, and Thor, ever jovial, recounted their morning training session with his mother.

Except, Thor would pause at odds places waiting for a comment that would not come. She cut too much spiced cheese for herself because there were no quick fingers to pick the extra bits off her plate, and the Allmother’s eyes would rest on the empty seat directly across from her looking for a sly smile that was not there.

This too had become routine lately. A hard uncomfortable routine that they all fumbled with.

After their meal Thor and his mother broke off, with a grin and gentle smile, as Sif excused herself to refresh and change. It was a handy truth as much as it was pretense and Sif felt the food heavy in her belly as she walked the halls back to her chambers.

She walked slowly with purpose, her fingers fiddling with the loose leather strap of her tunic.

The palace seemed emptier lately and there was no question as to why. Loki’s absence was considerably felt and yet his memories and presence still lingered everywhere she looked.

Some of his magic, spells and illusions he had woven into the walls and mirrors were slowly ebbing away. It was obvious in how the the wide mirror in their warrior’s chambers did not warp anymore when Fandral looked upon himself, or how books were suddenly appearing in crevices and corners all over the palace as well as the surrounding grounds, usually in what had been his preferred spots to hide away, some in completely unthinkable areas.

At first it had amused. When Thor tripped over a large pile of texts in the shared living area they all frequented, or when she would see a volume tucked by his seat at the table, but her amusement had turned sour, however, when she walked into her quarters not long after Loki’s fall and found a stack of books littering her bedside table.

She had practically collapsed on her bed with the foolish notion that it meant Loki had survived the fall when her sense kicked back in. The leather bound volumes looked well loved and, she remembered, were some of his favourites to read. When she had presented them back to the queen she had vaguely mentioned she had found them by one of the training area’s alcoves. If the queen had noticed how Sif’s voice was strained and how she could not meet her queen’s gaze, she said nothing, blessed Allmother.

However, more painful than the magic that was fading, was the magic that remained.

The bushes of golden roses that he gifted his mother years ago still thrived. Sif remembered how he had woven the spells into the ground and seeds so the flowers would always bloom regardless of season, and how should anyone but the queen dare pick one they would be pricked by the silver thorns.

Other spells remained as well: the rune magic on their weapons; the privacy charms in his study; the enchantment on the silver-rose box he had given her that only allowed her to open it. Small, but important spells. Spells that were protective or sentimental in nature and as she made the way into her rooms, she thought that in some ways these were the most painful spells he could have left behind.

She pushed past the memories that lingered of him and headed to her bathing chamber to soak herself in a hot bath. She hoped it would loosen her muscles and the tightness in her chest that had returned.

 

It was after she emerged from her bath, hair sticking to her robed shoulders in thick dripping strands, that Sif made her way to the small wooden chest that sat by her personal writing table. Lifting the chest onto the table, she opened it and sighed at the weapons inside. Two custom silver spinning throwing knives rested with the chest, another leftover from Loki. He’d had this habit of tucking his weapons into little magic pocket dimensions he created or secret little crevices within his armour. Sometimes he would forget one or two or three in her chambers when undressing or redressing.

She would always find them later and stash them safely in the chest until she returned them or he retrieved them. Nobody questioned her for having the weapons at all, though there had never been any suspicion about them anyway.

He had teased her about that once when she complained how he left them around on purpose. Fingers edging the blade of one of the weapons, his smile was sly.

“Lady Sif, what is more conceivable: for you to have weapons in your bedchambers or for you have _me_ in it?”

The comment still burned at her.

Expertly handling the knives, she picked one, flipped and twisted it in her hand for a few seconds before doing the same with other. They were slim, lightweight and so beautifully dangerous. She traced the etchings on the inside of the blades—a spell to call them back to the master in battle, Loki had told her once—and closed her eyes. They had a excellent balance. Perfect balance, as their owner would have demanded nothing less.

Muscle memory had her spinning the blade in her hand without a second thought.

Loki had been a decent swordsman, but his hands had always controlled his throwing knives with an enviable elegance. One she could not hope to compete with.

However, her hands were used to weapons; all weapons.

She spun the slim weapon in her hand and without opening her eyes, threw her arm back, bent it at the elbow, and extended, eyes snapping open just a second after release. A second before the dagger embedded itself into the smooth, unmarred wall of her chambers.

It trembled there for a second and then rested.

Sif tossed her robe aside and went to her wardrobe for a fresh pair of clothes.

 

It was well known that Thor often rode out to the edge of the Bifrost and stood with Heimdall as the guardian looked out into the Nine Realms. There were times that Sif thought to join him for no particular reason other than--

She would dream of Loki at the edge, fingers clasped around his brother's hand, fingers white with strain just before he was swallowed by the dark of space. Thor had told them all how Loki had helped him crack the Bifrost in the end and how they both would have fallen if not for the Allfather. How Loki had slipped from him even though Sif knew that last turn of the tale was a lie. Thor would never be the skilled liar that Loki had been and she could see the shadow in his words.

Loki had not slipped.

What truly happened over the edge of the Bifrost was something known only to the brothers, the Allfather and the Allmother.

But she had her suspicions.

They all spoke of this lie as if truth, however, she knew: they did so for Loki. For the memory of the younger prince.

She was not sure if she was angry at them for it. Loki's actions still ate at her -- gnawed at her insides like hungry snakes -- when she would let herself dwell on it in the middle of the night when sleep would not come. She still could not understand them. She’d known from their argument in the healing room before everything tumbled out of their control that there had been something wrong.

She’d been sure of it in the throne room.

There had been a choice there, somewhere between the words they had spoken and the words they had not. She felt like she had missed it. A clue Loki had hinted at to her that she hadn't seen.

Pushing her hair back into a tight tail she tapped her temple with her fist. It was past. What had happened between them had past and it was now gone.

Yet it pulled at her still.  

Everyone knew she and Thor were friends and for a long time they all had thought, much to her and Thor's amusement, that she would be his betrothed. But that was because nobody had ever thought she would consider his brother. All seemed to have forgotten Loki was a prince just as much as Thor at times.

Now Loki could not be forgotten at all. The Warriors Three remained uncomfortable still when speaking of the dark and silver prince, and Thor's eyes shadowed when they spoke of his brother. Sif could barely say his name out loud. She could not even bring herself to speak to the Allmother though Sif knew the queen saw more then she ever said.

But there was one person she could speak to.

Crossing across the palace grounds to the stables she went to find her mare.

Mounting, her hands tight on the bridle, Sif set her sights on the horizon.

 

—

 

Heimdall would see her coming, she knew.

Their relationship was complicated, forged by old magic. When the Gatekeeper was birthed from his nine mothers -- one of them Sif's own -- in an old ritual, she had not yet been a thought in either of her parents’ minds. When she finally came into the world he had been at his post for centuries.

She rode without pretense or shame. She pushed her horse and let the wind whip at her hair as she made her way across to the cracked edge of Asgard.

Pulling her horse to a gradual halt, she dismounted and patted the mare's side before walking to where Heimdall stood gazing out into the depths of space.

"Lady Sif." He did not look to her as she reached his side.

“Heimdall.” She titled her chin forward, "I see Thor is not keeping you company today."

His face did not move but his eyes shifted to her. "But you knew that before you rode out, did you not?"

Sif said nothing.

"What have you come to ask me, young one, that you could not ask with our prince here?"

Looking out at the stars as he did, she thought about his question. In truth, she knew that Heimdall could not enlighten her much on what transpired after she and the Warriors Three had left Thor and had taken the Gatekeeper to the healing room. But this was the last place that she had seen Loki alive and it had been tugging at her.

Even standing here, near enough to the edge that one false move would have her tipping over and lost to the dark, it still tugged at her.

Suddenly, she knew why she had come.

Sif crouched and touched the cool crystal of the Bifrost with her fingers.

"I wanted to see.”

“See?”

Looking at the edge, she let out a breath and stood.

"I wanted to see what it would be like to stand here now that--" She broke off, not able to say the words. Instead, she looked out to the depths of space.

"What do you see today, Heimdall? What have the realms to say?"

If Heimdall was displeased by her lack of answer to his question he did not show it and leaned his head forward, chin almost on the covered hands resting on the hilt of his massive sword, as he stretched his vision out.

"I see Jotunheim, still ravaged by the effects of the Bifrost energy it sustained." Sif's throat tightened at the words, but before she could say anything, Heimdall continued with his report, "I see Vanaheimr, lush with the green of its spring. I see Alfheimr, and it's magics. I see Hel and Niflheimr, covered in heat and ice. And I see Midgard."

Sif felt that tug that had brought her here pull tighter.

"What do you see on Midgard, Gatekeeper?” She felt his gaze settle upon her briefly, but kept her eyes forward, unsure of what truths they would reveal to him.

"I see the human, Jane Foster. She still seeks for a way to bring Thor back to her," he paused and Sif turned at him. His gilded eyes narrowed a fraction and then they widened.

Heimdall stiffened next to her and his hand shifted to grasp the hilt of his sword. Sif's hand instinctively moved to the blade at her side as the air filled with the smell of burning metal.

"Heimdall. What is it that you see?" she asked, but was given no answer.

The Bifrost shook under her feet and she stumbled for a second before regaining her balance. Sword drawn, she turned to Heimdall with wide eyes.

"What is this?" She yelled. The ground shook harder and it felt as if thunder was growing under her feet, surging from the emptiness below, shaking her and the Bifrost. It reminded her of when the ice cracked and spilt under her feet in Jotunhiem as she and her friends ran to safety, but today she knew the Allfather would not come on his great horse and pull them home. "Heimdall, what is happening?" She shouted once more over the growing rumbling.

Sif would not hear Heimdall’s reply as the sound turned into a light so bright she had to shut her eyes even as it pulled at her.

 

—

 

She woke up to the feel of hard earth at her back and soft hands on her arms. Immediately on guard, she clenched her fists and was relieved to feel that her right hand still grasped her sword. Her ears were ringing but it was no matter for she had her weapon at her side.

She launched up, blinked at the harsh glare of light and then blinked again finding her footing.

Wherever she was, it wasn't Asgard. She had known as much the second she felt the unfamiliar ground at her back. Was it Alfheimr? Had the elves managed to use magic to open the Bifrost? The light in her eyes was still too bright and though she could make out figures near her but they were blurry dark patches against more light. Sound was coming back, but slowly, and the voices were muffled.

“S-f,” she heard. “S-ff!”

She turned to the sound and blinked again, forcing her vision to clear. The dark patches she had seen before started to take shape. Familiar shapes.

The pale faces of Jane Foster and her assistant... Darcy? Yes, Darcy. The haze of their faces began clearing for Sif and she lowered her sword hand.

"That's a good sign, right?" one of them said but Sif could not tell which as her head was still pounding, her eyesight still clearing.

"Yeah, I hope so," said the other, and slowly Sif watched as they reached out to her. Jane, it was Jane, Sif finally could make out her delicate features as she smiled nervously at Sif and carefully reached for her sword.

Sif's hand tightened on the blade. "No."

Jane looked at her, took a step back, and nodded, "Okay, but can you, you know--" She motioned to Sif's sheath.

In all honesty, Sif didn't want to put her weapon away. Even though her senses had cleared and she could see Darcy and the wide expanse of desert that stretched behind Jane, she felt better with the blade in her hand. She saw the wary looks on the other women's faces and save her deep confusion as to how she arrived back on Midgard she felt no threat from either of them.

Quickly, she looked around and gauged visually what her instincts had already told her. There was no one else but them in the immediate vicinity. It was herself, Jane, Darcy and from what she could see a significant amount of equipment around them.

Slowly sheathing her sword, Sif took a long breath and turned to them. She tried to smile but she felt it come out a snarl.

"I take it I owe my arrival here to you," she said.

Jane flushed and offered a cautious smile, "Well, um, today's test was actually supposed to create a stable energ--"

Darcy stepped forward and thrust a water bottle to Sif, saying, "Jane, I think if you just said we were hoping she'd be a burly blond Sif wouldn't be insulted."

"Hey!" Jane turned to Darcy, frowning, taking the bottle from her assistant and offering it to Sif herself. "Here, you should hydrate. The bridge wasn't supposed to open like that and you hit the ground pretty hard when you landed."

"Not to mention, it's the middle of the day in the desert and you're decked out in Xena gear," Darcy put in with a with smile.

Sif stared at the two women before her, still confused as to how specifically she had come to Midgard. They were right, however. She still felt off-balance from her hard landing and she could feel sweat drops rolling down the back of her neck already.

Taking the offered water, she took a deep gulp and nodded at the two women.

“Thank you. Now, _how_ is it I came here?" she asked.

Jane and Darcy shared a quizzical look and sighed. Jane turned to her equipment that littered the area around them and then looked up to the clear blue sky as if she was waiting for it to open up again. When she looked back down to Sif her eyes were misty but determined.

"Come on, we'll pack up and fill you in when we get back. It’ll be easier there.”

Darcy was already walking towards the van and Jane walked slowly after her. Sif looked up at the blue skies of Midgard and prayed that Heimdall was still watching.

“If you can hear me Heimdall,” she murmured. “I am fine and tell— tell Thor she... Tell Thor what you’ve seen.”

Lowering her head, she faced forward to where Jane and Darcy were lifting one of nine large metal machines into their vehicle. Rolling her shoulders back she set her face, she stepped forward to help them.

What else could she do?

 

—

 

Inside the van it was cooler than the desert and just as messy as Sif remembered. Darcy sat behind the large wheel that was used to steer the vehicle, which Sif could not help thinking of as an overgrown carriage while Jane asked Sif if she felt better.

“Yes,” Sif replied.

Then Jane ploughed forward asking SIf how it had felt to be pulled across realms.

“I know I probably should wait, but it’s fresh on your mind and if you could tell me how things were for you on the other side it would really be helpful so next time we try it we don’t cause major trauma.” Jane smiled gently as she turned in her seat to face Sif, who sat sipping from the bottle of water, and she had to smile. It was becoming clearer why Thor was so enamoured with this mortal. Neither knew how to stop once they started.

Sif leaned her head back, sighing as the muscles in her neck loosened, and began recounting as best she could how it had felt on the edge of the Bifrost. How Heimdall had tensed before she had realized anything was happening. The thick smell of rusted metal, the lightning that struck her senses before the sound of thunder roared from under the Bifrost, and the sudden there was a flash of pure white light.

As she retold the events, Jane asked questions. How long did it last? How did the light feel? Did it hurt? Was there any other warning other than the smell in the air and rumbling? Did she feel charged? Drained?

Clever questions that Sif tried to answer as best she could while Jane’s quick hands flew across the pages of her small notepad.

When she was done recounting her experience Jane sat back in her chair, hands still furiously scribbling, without another word.

In a way, Sif was grateful. She was unharmed and while her body felt overworked, she was not tired. Her fingers felt restless and her shoulders still ached a little from her impact. Her mind was slowly wrapping itself around the fact that unless Jane could reopen the Bifrost it was very likely she would be stuck on Midgard for a good while until her fellow Aesir found a way to reopen the Bifrost themselves.

Stretching her legs her boots knocked with the metal of the vehicle and Darcy looked back at her.

“It’s a pretty long ride back into town. Two hours at least, so if you want to get some shut-eye it’s cool. I’ll keep my music on low.”

Sif considered the younger woman’s words and decided they had merit. Her day, after all, had taken quite a turn.

 

—

 

While not in a deep sleep, Sif still dreamed.

Old memories twisted with shadows and grief.

“M’lady,” she heard in a smooth voice tinted with wickedness at its edges, as long fingers took hold of her hand. She felt cool lips and the bite of teeth on her skin.

Then she looked up and her face froze in shock. There was the pale shadow of Loki smiling darkly in the mirror as he jerked her through.

 

—

 

The van stopped with a jolt that jarred Sif awake. Opening her eyes, she looked over to where Darcy was grimacing over her shoulder, eyes apologetic. "Sorry, the brakes on this baby are a little temperamental sometimes."

"It is fine," Sif said, already moving from her seat as Jane opened the doors and began unpacking her supplies. Without a word, Sif went to help her as Darcy commented on how awesome it was they had extra hands to help unload.

"You know, I know Jane misses our buddy Thor for the goo-goo eyes they used to make at each other, but me? I miss the upper body strength. Who needs a workout regimen when you have to cart a small lab around the desert every week." Darcy squished herself between Sif and Jane, reaching for what Sif had a feeling was the lightest piece of equipment in the van.

"Darcy," Jane hissed.

Darcy only grinned, the sun glinting in her glasses for a second, "What? I'm just saying. Out of everyone that your little light bridge could have grabbed we lucked out." She sent Sif a wink and bounded inside leaving her and Jane to the rest.

Jane sighed. "Sorry about her, I'm pretty sure her brain-to-mouth filter is broken."

"I'm not sure what that means, Jane Foster, but if you fear I was offended you need not worry." Sif shrugged and grabbed one of the larger crates from the van. Jane blinked at her, lips twitching.

"Okay." She grabbed a few metal rods and her notebooks then closed the back door to her van. "And you don't really need to call me Jane Foster; Jane's fine."

"Very well." She followed Jane inside to the familiar building with its large glass windows. "However, I am curious as to just how your ‘light bridge’ as she called it managed to bring me here."

"To tell you the truth, I'm a little curious about that myself. Today's test wasn't supposed to open the bridge at all. I just wanted to see if we could recreate or mimic, at least, the same kind of energy that we got from the last time the Bifrost opened up."

Dropping the materials in her hand on a nearby table, Jane motioned to Sif where she could set down the crate she had been carrying. As she did, Sif watched as Jane fiddled with the pen in her hand.

"You getting pulled through was an accident. A happy accident," Jane corrected, her teeth flashed brightly, and she glanced out the window to the sky.

Sif guessed she thought of Thor, and when Jane turned back there was a new light in her eyes.

“And hopefully one we can make happen again with more finesse."

"I see." Sif looked at Jane and at the area surrounding her. She had more questions, not many, but ones still she felt compelled to ask.

Namely, could Jane get her back?

There was a tightness in her gut that made her decide to wait until they were more settled before she would.

Jane gave a small shrug and reached up, tugging her hair out of the tail it had been in. "I wish I could give you more details but I only have half-finished theories and thoughts right now. I need to go over the readouts and hopefully then I can tell you more." She began to shift back to her notes before she stopped and faced Sif again. "You might want to get out of those clothes--me and Darcy have some extra stuff in the back somewhere--and if you're hungry there's food in the cupboards. Ar--are you going to be all right, Sif?”

Sif felt she could only nod, so she did. "I will be fine. Midgard is not the worst realm I've encountered." Her lips curled in a small smile which seemed to relieve Jane.

Her own words calmed Sif as well in the truth they held. She’d been in much worse situations in her long life than being stranded on a realm of mortals among friends. True, they were technically, Thor’s friends, but she knew that despite not being Thor as Jane had hoped, she would not be mistreated.

The situation was uncomfortable and not ideal, but for now at least she was not alone.

"Okay, good. Just," Jane furrowed her eyebrows and waved her hand around in a welcoming sort of gesture. “Make yourself at home. Darcy!"

Darcy's head popped out from behind one of the large boards that littered the area. "What?"

"Help Sif settle in and let's start thinking about takeout. We have a lot of data to get through." Jane commanded, turning back to her notes.

Darcy nodded brightly, making the curls in her hair bounce, and grinned at Sif. "So, Sif, ever had Chinese takeout?"

At Sif's blank stare Darcy laughed. "No worries, if all you Asgardians are alike when it comes to food, you'll probably love it."

"Aesir."

Darcy blinked. "Gesundheit?"

"Pardon?"

"You sneezed?"

Sif grinned, "No, I didn't. It was a word. Aesir. Asgard is the name of our land not our race. We are the Aesir."

"Oh," Darcy pursed her lips, "Ae-sir. Huh. Cool, I can dig it. Might need to apologize to Thor next time I see him though."

"I'm sure he didn't think twice on it," Sif reassured, and made her way over to Darcy. "So what is this Chinese takeout of which you speak?"

“Let’s find a place for that armour and uh, wow, swords first and then I'll introduce you to the wonder of dumplings."


	2. Chapter 2

The dumplings were indeed delicious and the red dipping sauce that Darcy had insisted she try with them had Sif making appreciative sounds as they sat around the makeshift living area Darcy and Jane had constructed in the middle of their lab.

Across from her Jane sat on the floor, a carton of something called Chow-Mein cupped in one hand as she gestured with the other.

Darcy had suggested that they fill Sif in over dinner, but Sif also suspected it was partly so she could be sure Jane ate tonight.

As Jane spoke, Sif wished she had spent more time paying attention when Loki had spoken of his studies. She felt utterly unbalanced and lost the more Jane went on.

"To open a wormhole, uh, what you call the Bifrost,” Jane started, “you need an amazing amount of concentrated energy stabilizing what is by nature an unstable vacuum. You ideally also need the coordinates of your destination spot to open it. I had those, thanks to Thor’s trip here before. Then he didn’t come back and I figured something had gone wrong.

“At first, I thought I would have to find a way to build a device that could theoretically sustain an artificial wormhole in order to open the bridge again, but then I remembered how Thor drew it." Jane reached behind her to retrieve her black notebook and setting down her food, flipped through the pages to where there was a very rough sketch something Sif recognised.

"That is Yggdrasil," Sif said.

"World tree," Darcy added from a mouth full of eggrolls. “I’ve been reading up on you guys.”

Jane looked up at them from where she had been staring at the drawing, "Yes, that's what Thor called it too and the way he drew it was... well, like the worlds are connected by branches."

"They are."

Jane grinned at her.

"Well, yes, but when talking about astrophysics it gets a little more complicated. Still after seeing Thor's drawing it got me thinking. As much as it looked like a tree, it also looked a road. A highway that veered off in different paths and at the end of each path, there's a world. A destination. Earth, Asgard, whatever. All connected to the centre path. All the wormholes or bridges being shown connected to a much bigger one.

“So I started thinking: maybe I didn't have to open a new bridge or even build one, but just reopen the two ends. Restart it, you could say. I don't think your bridge is broken, I think it’s closed off.”

Jane broke off to take a messy bite of her food, but with her free hand pointed to the page at one of the branches connecting Asgard to the centre of Yggdrasil.

“There are natural wormholes connecting these places together, we’ve just lost the way of accessing them. Whatever happened that day it broke the connection you had to the other realms. Simply put, it broke the end of your branch that connected Asgard to Yggdrasil. It used to have a door and now that door is gone. It's a matter of rebuilding the doors again."

Jane and Darcy shared a look Sif couldn't read and then Darcy leaned forward and patted Sif's knee, "We're going to fix your street. Think of us as Yggdrasil's road crew."

Sif blinked. "Is that even possible? I've never heard of such a feat done before.”

Jane glanced down, "Someone had to have built your Bifrost once before, someone can do it again."

"And you feel you are one to do it?"

From the way Jane's shoulders stiffened and her fingers clenched Sif realized that her words insulted the other woman. Before she could say anything to appease Jane spoke up, cutting of any response Sif had.

"Yes. I am and I will." Her eyes were hard and she met Sif's gaze head on. "This is my life's work. Before Thor, which I know everyone thinks this is all about," she shot a glare at Darcy who slouched and pointedly looked at her food, “This was my work. My life. Proving the existence, not to mention _finding_ , a traversable wormhole is possibly the most significant scientific find of the century and I am not going see it lost. As much as I care about Thor and want to see him again, it’s more than just-- I already opened it once already. I'll do it again."

"Jane." Sif reached over and covered her shoulder.

Jane gave her a cold sideways glance, tense under Sif's hand.

“And I believe you. It was not my intention to offend, but what you're attempting to do has never been done by mortals." Sif sat back and frowned, "I do not know much about the mechanics of these things but it will not be easy."

"Hey, hey, hey, don't forget we already did it." Darcy spoke up, leaning forward, "We totally opened your rainbow bridge today and it kicked ass. Okay, so it was more getting our asses kicked, but we jimmied that lock.”

Sif remembered the event well as it only had been hours before and her back was still tender. "Yes, you did." She turned to Jane again. “You still have not told me _how_.”

Jane sighed. "Ah, yeah. Okay. First, I had to build a device that for the lack of a better word would act as a key, with enough power to draw enough vacuum energy so it could eventually twist that ‘lock’ open. That's what we were testing today. The energy outputs.

“There’s a new substance—a new element that Tony Stark constructed and its properties are were unlike any I’ve ever seen. Powerful though, and I thought it could power this enough to create a stable energy field, but it wasn’t. It's too volatile with the device. The bonds don't hold the energy field together long enough for what I'm trying do, and while it opened the bridge for a few seconds, from what I gathered from your account, it's not a stable opening. You fell through time and space but there was no stability to the connection. It could have dropped off at any moment and left you stranded in the middle of space. It could have completely deteriorated on the other side and, frankly, I'm a little surprised it happened at all."

Darcy nodded along, "Yeah, it was a wild ride here too, the ground got shaky and the flash of light knocked us both on our ass before we saw you hit the ground."

"Yes, that was unfortunate."

"But now you're here and not dead, so I say mission accomplished,” Darcy said.

Sif shared a glance with Jane over Darcy's brand of optimism. "What will you plan to do next?"

Jane picked up her food again and poked at it with the slim wooden sticks she and Darcy were using as utensils.

"Find a better way to do it."

 

—

 

Later that evening when Darcy headed into the shower, Sif walked up to Jane who was still hunched over her notes.

Jane looked up and blinked. “Yeah?”

“It was Thor and Loki. They broke the Bifrost in an attempt to save Asgard and another realm — Jotunheim — from destruction,” Sif divulged, feeling it was important for Jane to know.

She eyed Jane’s notes. Her short hand script was neat, so different from Sif’s own messy scrawl.

“Thor,” Sif drew her eyes away from Jane’s paper and met the woman’s frank gaze. She covered the tips of Jane’s fingers with her hand. “Thor did not have another choice.”

Jane’s swallowed hard and her fingers twitched under Sif’s hand. “Oh. Tha-thank you for telling me.” She smiled up at Sif, her eyes bright. “Really, thank you. That’s. It’s good to know.”

Sif nodded and took her hand back. Curled it at her side.

“It was right for you to know.”

 

—

 

That night Sif slept restlessly on the sofa that Jane and Darcy had cleared off for her.

She padded quietly through the lab, carefully avoiding the back area where Darcy slept and stood by the large windows. They should not have reminded her of the palace’s windows, for these were dirty and grey and covered in glass, but there was something familiar in how they let her look up to the sky.

She did not recognise any of the stars.

Making her way back to the sofa, she laid flat on her back, one arm resting over her head and released a deep breath; for the first time in a long time she missed her parents.

 

—

 

It was a strange shrill sound that woke her. She almost rolled off the thin sofa at the sound. Groggy and disgruntled she pushed herself off the cushions and squinted through the harsh morning light that filtered through the windows, to see if she could pinpoint the ear-piercing sound so she could _stop it_. Kill it if need be.

And it seemed she was not the only one who felt the same. From the back of the building Darcy stumbled through the room, glasses slipping down her nose, hair in a messy tail and wearing what seemed to be purple sleep trousers and a thin top.

“Where is that fucking devil phone?” Darcy grumbled, side-stepping random bits of equipment like it was second nature.

“What is that horrible sound?” Sif said, voice rough with sleep and sharp with annoyance.

Darcy blinked at her and grumbled again. “Phone, evil phone. Evil mean phone.”

Sif did not know what Darcy meant but she watched the young woman rifle through the desk and tables before she closed her hand over a small black device. Darcy touched something on it and spoke into it.

Ah, a communication device. Sif yawned and leaned on the back of the couch watching as Darcy spoke to whoever contacted them.

“Hello, Jane Foster’s office. Her assistant Darcy Lewis speaking,” Darcy said sounding much more professional and awake than her appearance suggested.

Sif watched the other woman’s body language as she tensed, relaxed, and tensed again. “Oh, hello, Agent Coulson.” She grimaced, looking over to Sif and pointing to Jane’s trailer. She mouthed, _get Jane, please_ , before turning her attention back to the person on the other end of the device.

Nodding, Sif turned and headed out to where Jane had retired to the night before. As she left the building she could hear Darcy still speaking.

“Yeah, it’s been going swell. Indian summer, though I don’t know if you call it that or that’s just the weather for most of the year. Lots of work, lot of heat.” Voice light and careful, Sif understood a stalling tactic when she heard one.

It took her five steps to cross to Jane’s door and she knocked.

Then knocked again.

Jane opened the door, hair in her face, eyes blurry, and wrapped in a thick wool robe. “Sif?” she blinked, “Is something wrong?”

Sif honestly did not know. “It seems you have received a communication from an Agent Coulson. Darcy is speaking to him right now.”

“Coulson?” Jane frowned and then her face cleared. “Oh. Oh! Crap! They must have picked up on what happened yesterday. Shit.”

Suddenly Jane seemed a whirlwind, pushing her hair from her face and she half stumbled, half rushed from her perch at the door into the building.

Sif followed.

“Shit.” Jane repeated before she reached Darcy and snatched the device. The two friends shared a look Sif recognised.

Problems. Trouble.

She was all too familiar with both.

Jane waved Darcy toward their small cooking area. Without a word Darcy nodded and headed over and began pulling things out of the cupboards. Sif went to help.

She could hear Jane behind them.

“Ah, hello, Agent Coulson. How are you?… Yes, I’m fine. Oh, that. We had some excitement yesterday but no trouble. Hyd-what? No.” Jane trailed off, frowning, and Sif turned to Darcy.

“Who is this Son of Coul? Has my arrival caused you two some difficulty?” Sif asked as she took the mugs Darcy handed her.

Darcy shook her head and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Son of—Ah! No it’s just Agent Coulson, like Jane is Doctor Foster or um, I dunno, you’re Lady Warrior Sif? It’s like a rank.” Darcy spoke through a yawn, as she moved around the kitchen pouring some brown grounded powder into a small device. “But we’re probably not in trouble. SHIELD tends to get their panties in a bunch when we forget to tell them about alien deities.”

She didn’t sound worried only tired, but Sif persisted. “Are you sure?”

Darcy handed her a plate that held two rectangular pastries. “Yeah, totally. Though they’ll probably drop by later to make sure you’re not going to send some killer super metal man to town.” She pointed to the pastries. “You’re gonna want to heat them up in the blue thing behind you. Just stick them in and press the handle down.”

Sif smiled at Darcy’s flippant attitude and turned to the blue device. “I can reassure you that I don’t plan any such thing.”

“I didn’t think so.” Darcy smiled, just as Jane walked back towards them. “So, we fired?”

Jane rolled her eyes and settled at the small table. “No, we’re not, but Coulson and company are coming for a little visit this week. They sound a little worried.”

“Told ya so.” Darcy winked at Sif and began pouring a dark brown liquid from the same device she poured the brown powder in into two mugs. “Here, energy juice.” She handed one to Sif and one to Jane.

Sif took a sip. Her eyes widened. Then she gulped it down.

“This is an excellent beverage!”

“Don’t smash the mug!” Jane and Darcy said in unison, making Sif quirk her eyebrow at them.

 

—

 

If she expected SHIELD agents to come barrelling down the dusty streets and slamming the doors to Jane's home open Sif would have been wrong. What they did was have this Agent Coulson call Jane several more times throughout the morning, resulting in Jane getting more and more frustrated with each call.

Sif was frustrated in turn for she knew the calls were about her.

 _Yes, I understand Agent Coulson. Yes, the element worked, but it's bonds broke down too fast and couldn't handle the energy required to keep the bridge open. No, we shouldn't chance it again. Right, thank you. We're fine. Our visitor? Fine too. Right, right. We’re expecting you._

Different versions of the same conversation happened roughly five more times during the day.

"If this Agent Coul’s Son” — “Coulson” — “would like Jane to keep working wouldn't it be better for him to stop bothering her?" Sif, seated cross-legged on the couch, while Darcy who was looking through several pages of data Jane had handed her when Coulson called, again.

Midgard was an extremely tedious realm. Sif's fingers kept drumming against her knee.

Darcy sighed and looked at Sif over the rim of her glasses, "That's SHIELD for you. Constant updates. They kinda left us alone for a while there, more when Erik was hauled up to D.C. a couple weeks ago, but Sif, you're kinda a big deal."

"Wonderful," Sif rolled her eyes.

Near one of the large boards, Jane paced talking on the phone, as Darcy told her the device was called, and pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. Sif levered herself over the back of the couch and made her way over. She heard Darcy hiss something at her but Sif dismissed it.

Plucking the phone out of Jane's hand, she turned her back on Jane's suddenly very wide, shocked eyes. "Sif!"

"Greetings, Agent Coul's Son. I am not here to cause trouble to you and your people. I was brought here due to circumstances outside my control and Jane's control. I am sure you are calling for good reasons but Jane cannot work properly with all these distractions and I'd like to find me a way home."

She could hear his muffled answer as she handed the phone back to Jane and walked out of the building.

Voices followed her but she paid them no mind. How had Thor stood it on this realm! With all these questions, all its limitations, and this heat and stickiness in air. It was a realm to make Hel proud. No wonder it was so low on Yggdrasil's branches.

She had switched out of her armour the day before but the clothes she wore now were unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Wearing one of Darcy's 't-shirt's' with wide printed words across the front of it and these trousers called 'jeans' that were too short on her legs. They tucked into her boots, the only part of her attire that was her own, in which she also had concealed the throwing knives — her only comfort.

Did they really expect her to just wait quietly?

She wanted to yell. Scream at the sky, curse Thor and Loki, or more accurately, punch one of them. Either would do, it was both their faults, idiots, both of them, they--

No, not _they_ anymore.

The thought caught her off balance and she fumbled in her stride.

No, not they. He. Thor. Only Thor because Loki fell and now she had fallen too.

In a way hadn't they all fallen?

A hand touched her elbow and Sif whipped around. She was confronted with Jane and Darcy's tight, worried faces. Worry for her.

It was only then that she tempered the irritation she felt raging inside her.

Jane's hands fluttered in front of her while Darcy had her lips pressed together, her head tilted in sympathy.

Sif exhaled. Even the the air she was forcing out of her body felt angry.

"I apologise. That was not my best moment."

"But it was awesome," Darcy said, teeth pulling at her bottom lip. "So take-charge-badass, and then there was a quality storm out. Like, I'd never be able to pull it off." She cuffed Sif on her shoulder.

It reminded Sif of her friends so far away.

Jane stepped up to her and laid her palm flat on Sif's arm. "It's fine, Sif. This is stressful for all of us."

"I still should not have been so ill-mannered to your Agent Coul’s Son."

"Coulson," Darcy muttered.

"Yes. It was disrespectful and I am a guest in your realm."

Jane smiled warmly, "If it makes you feel better, Thor kicked a bunch of his guy's asses. In comparison you’re a model guest.”

"It does," she said gamely.

"Good, go back or walk?" Jane asked, glancing over her shoulder back at the building.

Sif didn't want to be rude -- again -- but. "If you need to head back, it's fine, but I feel a walk would do me good."

Darcy looked at Jane and Sif could see the silent conversation happening between the two women in the slight shift of eyebrows and twist of their lips. It hit her in the chest like a bolt.

SIf could always tell Thor's moods from his smiles and had always been able to tell Loki's from his eyes. Except in those last days. They had been so shaded, so far from her.

But he had stayed away from her those last few days too. From the minute they arrived back from Jotenhiem he'd pulled away and while she had always taken his mercurial moods with ease, it had been that argument in the healing chambers that had snapped something between them. It vexed her that she could still not tell what had changed.

"I think we'd all benefit from a walk," Darcy said, moving to Jane's side and slipping her arm through Jane's.

Sif’s attention was drawn back to the two mortals at her side. She left her thoughts behind on Asgard behind, where they were far from her.

"You do not have to."

"No, it'd be good! Get out of the lab, get some air, pick up some food." Darcy pulled Jane and Sif forward towards the town.

Jane still glanced over her shoulder, but she patted the hand Darcy tucked in the crook of her elbow. "We need some more coffee."

"It is indeed a very good beverage."

 

—

 

They showed her the small town that was Puente Antiguo. They took her to the diner where she met a woman named Roz who seemed to be their main provider of food, they showed her the book store, another food store that they called the supermarket, where they picked up some sundries, and a few other small businesses.

The town was no bigger than the smallest village in Svartalfheim, but its occupants seemed much friendlier than the dwarves.

As they circled back towards Jane's lab, Sif had to admit that while the walk did her some good, she still felt restless. Her bones were jumping under her skin charged and itching.

Declining an offer of chips from the bag Darcy presented to her, Sif eyed the town. "Is there any arena in this town where I could spar?"

Jane looked up at Sif, "Spar?"

Sif nodded, "Yes, for sport."

"Like a gym?"

"What is that?"

"A place for fitness where people work out."

Jane nudged Darcy who rolled her eyes, "I dunno how to explain what a gym is, I don't even go to one, but, yeah Sif, it's like a place where ideally you work up a sweat, if you choose to torture yourself that way." As if making a point, Darcy grabbed a handful of chips and stuffed them in her mouth.

Place to sweat?

Well, it _sounded_ ideal.

"I see. Does your town have one?"

To Sif's disappointment Jane said no. "Sorry, most people here have personal equipment or run. Roz's son is a runner."

"I see." Sif shifted the bags in her arms and opened the door to Jane's home. Well, she could run. It'd been a while since she ran for training purposes outside races with Thor or Fandral, but she felt too stagnant. Jane and Darcy would surely be headed back to their work and just sitting, watching, _waiting_ was so incredibly dull.

Setting the bags down, Sif asked. "Jane, do you have any running attire?"

She did not think they’d want her to run in her bindings and armour.

Jane's eyes flicked quickly from the bags she was organising to Sif's clothes and shoes and back to her face. Jane had such an expressive countenance, Sif had to admit, all her thoughts were so clearly displayed in her charming face. It was no wonder Thor took to the woman, she thought fondly, he being very much the same.

"Running attire." Jane repeated, "Ah, yeah, sure. You can see if you fit into mine or Darcy's sneakers and I'm sure we can dig up some sweats. I take it you're going for a run?"

Sif shrugged.

Jane's face softened. "Yeah, no problem and tomorrow we'll go get you some clothes and shoes too."

Looking over Sif's shoulder to where Darcy sat at her desk, feet propped up, eating her chips, Jane called out. "Darce, grab a pair of sneakers and sweats, Sif needs to borrow them."

Darcy tilted her head back completely in her chair, hair draping over the back of it, and gave both of them a look. "Seriously?"

 

—

 

In the end Sif was grateful her boots were made to fight, ride, and run in because both Jane and Darcy’s feet were too small and the sneakers they showed her — a lightweight canvas shoe with a gummy sole that Sif had to recognise was rather ingenious — were too tight on her feet. Jane’s barely had fitted her.

She had, however, changed from her jeans and into a pair of cotton breeches they called ‘shorts’. Sif had not bound her chest this morning, but when she had started going for the bindings that rested with her armour Darcy had cut her off and tossed her something called a ‘sport’s bra’. She said Jane had bought it ages ago but never actually used it, which Sif was considering keeping, for it made the job of her bindings much neater.

The nice thing about Jane and Darcy’s lab was that it was near the edge of the town and it opened up in the back to the desert.

Space. Free, open space.

Sif inhaled deeply as she ran.

Midgard’s air was staler than Asgard but sweeter than some of the realms she’d known.

It was welcoming though. The soft wind kept her company and she pumped her legs powerfully across the sand.

She made sure not to run too far from the town, made sure to keep Jane’s building in her sights, but Sif had good eyes. She ran far and circled the town and then did it again and again and again. It felt… empty. It was amazing how empty Midgard felt now in comparison to her last day on the realm.

Stopping, not out of breath but out of curiosity, she looked out to the horizon. To her left was the town; behind her, in front of her and to her right were mountains far off in the distance and beyond that she did not know. Maybe she could see Thor’s interest in the realm outside of Jane. It was wide and unfamiliar. An adventure.

She laughed into the wind. She laughed and felt her eyes mist over.

There was not a corner of Asgard that was unfamiliar to her.

She missed home.

 

—

 

Sif ran until night fell before she turned back.

 

—

 

She spent the next day in similar fashion.

She woke, this time to the sun’s harsh glare through the windows, drank half of one of the Tropicana No Pulp juices they bought yesterday, and ate almost a full box of the pastries that Darcy had introduced her to before either Jane or Darcy padded into the main area.

Then she broke fast once more with them—this time with coffee, which really was a wondrous drink, eggs and toast—and helped with what she could regarding Jane’s research. Answered what she could about the Bifrost, the other realms, and mostly kept Darcy company while pausing to smile for the pictures she kept taking with her phone. Some of Midgard’s devices were truly ingenious. She tried not to think on Loki and how he would have enjoyed learning them, but it was hard not to.

Darcy also showed her images of Thor that she had taken.

She and Jane gave Sif quick lessons when Sif would ask what something did, but the day was mostly lost to work.

They walked into the town again and purchased Sif some clothes that actually covered her long limbs correctly then ate a late lunch at Roz’s.

 

—

 

When Darcy and Jane settled down in the late afternoon, Sif took to the desert.

She liked the expanse of it, how the night came upon it softly.

 _He came into her room like a shadow, quiet and light, in the dusk. His fingers trailed the inside of her forearm and his thumbs rested at the corner of her elbow. “Your hair is like the night, have I ever told you that? Thick and dark… it is easy to get lost in.”_

The memory came unbidden and unwanted but yet she welcomed it nonetheless. It was a good one. She treasured it, even if it snatched her breath away from her.

But she did not dwell on it and pushed her legs harder, pushed herself farther leaving it in the desert, where it felt safe.

 

—

 

She walked in to see Jane on her telephone and Darcy on the sofa watching something on her personal laptop.

“Yes, we’ll see you soon. There’s a lot to talk about. Your headaches better?” She heard Jane say as she walked to the restroom — and while she sorely missed her own personal bathing chambers with its deep tub and familiar smells, these bathrooms were truly clever — to wash up, and figured she must be talking to her Agent Coul Son’s—Coulson.

Just before she closed her door Darcy called out, “Sif we’re treating you to pizza tonight. Be prepare to have you mind _blown_.”

She laughed, slipping into the small room. “I am so warned.”

On the phone Jane said something to an Erik.

 

—

 

Pizza was. Brilliant.

Ice-cream even more so.

Darcy laughed as Sif polished off half the serving and most of the pot by herself while Jane peppered her with questions on her Aesir metabolism.

 

—

 

Yes, she could see so much more clearly why Thor felt such affection to these mortals; Darcy and Jane in particular.


	3. Chapter 3

It was when she was helping Darcy with the data read-outs that Jane had asked for her assistant to compile, that Sif heard it. Puente Antiguo was a small town and she already knew the sounds of it, the rhythm of it. What she heard now was unfamiliar. It was an echo of a sound that warned her a large convoy was heading towards them.

Leaving Darcy, she went to peer out the windows.

Large dark vehicles kicked up dust and sand as they headed up the street towards them. Sif looked to where her sword, glaive, and armour stood propped up by the wall. The throwing knives in her boots pressed against the material of her jeans.

Not looking away from the approaching cars, she called out. "Jane, I believe you have company."

"What?" She heard Jane hurry to stand by her side and when the other woman saw the convoy, she sighed heavily. "Darcy, Agent Coulson and SHIELD are finally here," Sif heard Darcy squeak something that sound like _\--pod_ , "Can you please stick the dirty dishes in the sink?"

"On it, boss!"

Sif gave a sideways glance to Jane. "She called you boss."

Jane shrugged. "It's a nervous tick."

But Sif could see it was more than that. "You two do not seem to like this Coulson and SHIELD much."

"It's not that; not specifically. They’re just very much a government agency and operate like one too. Me and Darcy would barely be a second thought to them if Thor hadn't come along." She reached up and pulled her pony tail out. "Even Erik has higher clearance than we do."

"I see." She didn't, but felt she understood well enough. It was hard being a woman in a world seemingly run by men. Sif understood about that too well.

Jane grinned up at her and smoothed her hair as the first of the dark vehicles stopped outside. "I hate politics." Then she went to the door to greet the short, stern looking man that approached.

 _As do I, Jane Foster_ , Sif thought to herself. She had been raised at her mother's knee in the Aesir high court, even if she ignored most of the lesson. Stepping forward she reminded herself of that and plastered a thin smile on her face.

 

—

 

“It’s nice to see you again, uh,” Agent Coulson looked to Jane and Darcy and the latter piped up with a helpful, “Lady Sif!” And a wink to Sif.

Sif schooled her face at Coulson’s reaction, merely nodding in greeting. “Sif is fine.”

He nodded. “Okay, Ms. Sif. Welcome to Earth; again.” He let the last word hang heavily around them hinting at the situation they were in.

“It’s been illuminating to say the least.” She gave a tight response like a solider would give an army commander. Coulson seemed to appreciate that.

“I can imagine.” He moved around the room, looking through Jane’s notes and the papers stuck on the boards bored, like he had seen them before; what Sif saw was a man taking in information and filing it away. Maybe she had dismissed this Agent Coulson too quickly. “So have Ms. Foster and Ms. Lewis been good hosts to you?”

Next to her Darcy made a rude face and would have probably said something had Sif not stopped her, a gentle hand on the shorter woman’s shoulder. “They have.”

He turned, his face carefully smooth, “That’s good. So you would say you’re comfortable here?”

“I would,” Sif said. She eyed the men that stood by the door with their weapons tucked into their jackets.

“And if they were to move?”

At this Jane stepped forward, her eyes flashing at Coulson’s words. “What do you mean _move_? My work here is very important and very sensitive. You just can’t move me—us!” She waved a hand towards Darcy when the younger woman cleared her throat pointedly.

Coulson’s face stayed controlled but there was a kindness he let shine through. “Dr. Foster, the project is still yours but from your new developments people have become concerned. Your work is very sensitive and you’re very far from any proper SHIELD facilities should anything happen to you here.”

The words _without protection_ were left unsaid but Sif heard them loud and clear.

Apparently Jane had too.

“So you think that because I don’t have fifty SHIELD agents fumbling through my lab every day I’m ill-equipped to handle what happens here. I didn’t have agents when that metal monster came and we were just fine.”

“Dr. Foster,” Coulson said gently, his lips curling slightly to the side. “You had Thor.”

Jane took one half-step back as if struck by an unexpected blow but recovered in an instant. “And now I have Sif here. She can handle things. Can’t you!?”

Having Jane’s temper turned on her surprised Sif for a beat but she met Jane and then Coulson’s eyes. She smirked. “Of course. Some even say I’m better than Thor.”

Darcy’s quiet _’burn’_ did not go unheard by anyone. Coulson did not address her though, or Sif. He addressed Jane.

“I can see you and Ms. Lewis are well protected Dr. Foster, but the liabilities are too great. And while we were lucky a friend of yours came, Ms. Sif’s arrival isn’t the only concern SHIELD has in regards to you. She has merely moved up a time table. The project remains yours, but SHIELD will be sending personnel to move you and your team to a secure facility tomorrow.” He already had started to fiddle with his slim black phone, pressing a series of buttons then holding it to his ear.

Jane bristled. “Where?”

Coulson didn’t look away from her as he signalled his team to move out. “Tomorrow morning, 1100, they’ll be here, Dr. Foster. We’ll see you in Colvis tomorrow afternoon.”

His parting words came as shock to the three women in the room.

Jane blinked once, twice, three times and then rushed out after him. Darcy was on her heels but Sif held her back. “Let her speak to him, Darcy.”

“He,” Darcy pointed angrily to the man on the other side of the window. “Just kicked us out!” She exclaimed, arms crossing tightly across her chest.

While Sif understood Darcy’s anger, she had to admit the shock had already worn off and she saw the situation as a warrior not just as guest, “No, he relocated us. We are too exposed here, Darcy.”

“Too exposed! It’s the middle of the desert-” The last word trailed off quietly.

Sif arched her eyebrow at the realization flickering through Darcy’s face. “Yes, exactly. You are quiet literally in the middle of nowhere.”

“They didn’t seem to care before.” Darcy pointed out.

“I believe it’s because they had no cause to worry before.”

It took a second but Darcy got it. “They think _you’re_ cause to worry.”

Sif did not know what this Agent Coulson and his people thought but she knew what she would think if it were her. “First, I would be insulted if they didn’t.” She winked which had Darcy rolling her eyes at her, “I do not mind; it’s a sound strategy. Keeps us all close. And no, I don’t think I am the only cause of worry.”

Darcy pouted, leaning against one of the tables. “Fine. Maybe Colvis has a Starbucks.”

 

—

 

When Jane came back in she looked tired and disgruntled. Darcy didn’t miss a beat as she herded her friend off to the couch Sif called a bed, sat her down, and started talking to her. Sif stayed where she was, watching Coulson and his men leave. She was no good at comfort; and trusted Darcy to take care of Jane and say just what the other woman needed to hear in order to help her focus on her task once more.

As the last dust cloud of the agents’ cars disappeared from the streets of Puente Antiguo Sif let her shoulders drop and headed back to her friends—Friends? Hmm, did she call them that now? Yes, she did, she decided. They were unlike Thor and the Warriors Three but they had become no less important to Sif.

She laughed with them, ate with them, and thanks to today she knew that had Coulson truly threatened Jane and her work, she would have made him reconsider his decision, despite whatever merit she saw in final decision. Darcy and Jane were too exposed here by themselves. The other day when they opened the Bifrost, they had been lucky it was her they pulled through, when it could have been any manner of other creatures or dwellers from the other realms.

They were clever and quick, but they did not know the dangers of the realms like she did. And it made her sick to think what could have happened had someone else, _something_ else, come through.

This was smart choice, strategically.

But Sif knew strategy wasn’t all.

As she approached the couch Darcy turned and grinned at her, hair flipping over her shoulder. “Being it’s our last night in Nowhere’s Ville, New Mexico, I’ve convinced Jane to have a little packing party tonight. Wine and pizza and more wine. What say you, Sif?”

Because she understood what Darcy was playing at she grinned widely and clasped her hands over each woman’s shoulders.

“Excellent idea, Darcy.”

 

—

 

Jane was back at work forty minutes later, not willing to lose the whole day thanks to Agent Coulson’s visit, and had Darcy remind her to tell her when it got to be seven so they could begin packing up the lab. Darcy saluted, and whispered to Sif that it was best if they let Jane deal with things for a couple hours before they started packing the equipment.

Darcy took the time to do some of her own work that did not relate to Jane’s and so that left Sif alone for the rest of the afternoon.

While Midgard’s sun did not affect her, it was too high in the sky and she preferred her evening runs. Glancing to where her amour and weapons were being kept she headed over to them without a second thought and picked up her glaive. They had shown her the roof on her second day. It would do.

Training always cleared her mind.

 

—

 

 _”You’ve always been quick on your feet when it comes to thinking, but are you when it counts?”_

His smile reached his eyes, and then his stance shifted so quickly she barely caught it. The jab would have gotten her right in the ribs if she hadn’t moved and caught his wrist to block it just in time.

“How do I measure, Lady?” The look in his eyes was as smug as his smirk. She hated when he called her that; it always sounded like he was mocking her but she did not know how.

She lashed out, lifting her leg to connect with his side. He merely side-stepped it and dropped to sweep.

“We shall see, Odinson.”

 

It was difficult to properly spar without an opponent, but Sif’s memory had always been strong. She still knew how to feint and counter Loki when he wasn’t even there.

 

 _He measured up._

 

—

 

That night as she ran she stopped and stared up into the sky again. The stars were still unfamiliar. The formations were all wrong and she yet still looked for Jaxsara out of habit.

“Heimdall,” she called, knowing that while she would get no response his eyes would turn towards her. She waited a beat. And another just to be sure.

“Heimdall, I do not know if you’ve been watching me often, but I am fine. Truly. Tell my mother so, should she ask.” Licking her lips, she looked back to the town, then up again. “Tell Thor _she_ is well. That she does not give up and it’s very possible he does not deserve her.” She made sure to inflect extra teasing in her voice for Heimdall was not known for his humour.

A desert wind whipped around her and she closed her eyes, inhaled.

She was still so unused to Midgard’s smells.

“I miss how Asgard smells, looks, but I fear it will be some time before I shall set my eyes upon it again.”

Opening her eyes, Sif looked away from the stars and let the wind rush around her as made her way back to the town. Wondering exactly what a packing party entailed of. She learned:

A lot of wine.

 

—

 

Closing and packing the rest of the lab took most of the morning and as Jane flipped the lock on the doors Darcy saluted the building.

“Ye old auto dealership we knew you well! I’m sorry for the time I threw up on the roof, but Erik should never make margaritas again.”

Sif laughed. Jane rolled her eyes but a fond look graced her face. “It was a good place. Maybe we’ll come back.”

It was clear neither woman really believed it but they wrapped their arms around each other and started towards Jane’s van. Sif helped load some of Jane’s more sensitive equipment and her armour into Jane’s van and then sat next to Jane in the front as Darcy stretched out in the back.

“Good-bye, Puente Antiguo. You were great. Sorry about the metal monster!” were Darcy’s parting words as they left the town.

As they drove away, the SHIELD trucks leading the way with Jane’s van in the middle pulling the mobile habitat Jane slept in, and a smaller black truck behind them, Sif watched the desert as they drove. Music filtered quietly through the device called ‘a radio’.

Nobody felt required to fill the comfortable silence.

She did not know what this Colvis would look like but she knew she would miss the desert. Funny how used to it she became in the few days she had been on Midgard.

They drove for hours and when the SHIELD trucks finally led them into what looked like a very well protected fort Sif knew they had arrived to Jane and Darcy's new home. As they were waved through the gates, Sif took note of the armed men and how they patrolled the perimeter. She grinned to herself when she saw at least four weak points in their formation. Well, they were only mortals.

When Jane finally stopped the van, Sif half-turned and shook Darcy gently awake from her nap. The young woman blinked and yawned reminding Sif of a small cub. "We there yet?"

Sif nodded. "We have arrived."

"Up and at'em, Darce!" Jane hopped out of the van and made her way to direct the SHIELD agents as they unpacked the trucks.

By the time Sif and Darcy had joined Jane outside, she was in a deep conversation with a SHIELD agent no taller than Sif, who looked at Jane like he did not know what to do with her. Darcy bounded over and Sif's eyes narrowed at how the agent’s eyes trailed over Darcy, but he looked less nervous than before.

"Those are sensitive materials!” Jane was exclaiming as Sif got within hearing range.

"Look, just tell your goons to treat everything in those trucks like they're your mother's prized heirlooms or you will not like the consequences." Darcy spoke, smiling gently, which Sif had learned was a very dangerous smile.

The agent grinned, "My mother's or their mother’s?”

"Whichever one will scare them the most." Darcy said and then added ominously, "Or else."

"I'm going to need something to back up that 'or else'." The agent said, his dimples flashing, and as Sif could see that Darcy was battling for a proper threat. Sif stepped forward at once.

"They'll deal with me." Sif walked up and stood at her full height. The agent moved step back a little. A solider assessing another solider.

His response was cut off by another voice.

"Dr. Foster, I see you've arrived with no trouble." Coulson's voice came from the left and they all turned to him as he approached. The agent nodded, "Sir."

"Agent Barton, I see you've met our new arrivals."

This Barton's smile was quick and his nod quicker. "I have, sir. I didn't know they were travelling with a personal guard though." He cocked his head towards Sif. She quirked an eyebrow in response.

Coulson did not miss a beat. "Yes, Ms. Sif is a new addition to Dr. Foster's team." He turned to Jane, "I take it all is in order."

Jane crossed her arms, "It most certainly is not! Look at how your agents are treating my equipment! These are not toys, Agent Coulson."

Coulson looked behind him and then motioned Barton forward. Barton nodded and headed over to the trucks.

"That should do it," Coulson said. "Your lab is this way. I'll escort you."

Jane did not stop glaring at the man, but it wasn't as deadly as before. "Fine, thank you." As Coulson started to lead them away Jane gave one last glance at her equipment.

Next to Sif, Darcy breathed. "Wow. Coulson is ice cold."

Sif had to agree.

 

—

 

Sif found that the fort was less a fort and more like a labyrinth made of silver metal. If they had thought the gleaming surfaces would remind Sif of Asgard they could not have been more wrong. Asgard was warm with its deep bronzes and gold curved structures; this place was cold and sharp. Built like a blade, Sif thought as Coulson handed them thin pieces of malleable papers covered in a sheen. He called them ID badges though they seemed more for access than identification, Sif thought. He swiped them across the small black devices that seemed to be at every door to get through. Sif, Jane and Darcy followed him.

It was two levels and three complicated turns later that Coulson stopped at a set of wide glass doors. He swiped his badge across the black box and the doors slide open.

They walked in and found they were not alone.

A man was waiting for them at the other end of the room. The man was older, looked even older than Coulson, and he stood wearing a brown jacket, hands in his pocket. When he looked up, his eyes filled with warmth as they looked over Jane and Darcy, but something else passed over his features as he regarded Sif.

Sif tensed. The air in the room seemed to change.

"Erik!" Both women exclaimed and rushed over to the man, enveloping him in hugs.

He embraced them back. "Hey, see they finally let you move out here."

"Yeah," Jane laughed, "Is this where they've been keeping you?"

This Erik looked away from Jane, but his face remained soft. "More or less."

Darcy pouted and hugged his arm, "We've missed you. You make the best pancakes."

Erik laughed and for a second Sif could forget the uneasy feeling that had passed over her when he had looked at her before. Jane and Darcy clearly thought the world of this man and it was obvious he had affection for them as well. It must have just been the instinctive protection tendencies that had clashed in both of them, Sif reasoned.

"Well it seems you weren't alone for long," he said, nodding towards Sif.

Sif fought the urge to cross her arms.

Jane grinned and waved her hand in the air like it explained everything, "It happened a few days ago. You know how it is. Lots of hard work, one breakthrough, a little luck, and the right place at the right time. Next thing we knew, Sif was hitting the ground."

Erik only nodded and extracted himself from Darcy's side. His eyes were wide. "The Lady Sif," he murmured and blinked. "Loki cut off your hair."

Sif frowned. "That made it into your tales?"

Erik cleared his throat and nodded, seemingly uncomfortable, "It seems so. You are also the goddess of fertility and earth."

At this Sif laughed, full bellied and deep. Mortals.

He blinked, but his lips curled in a manner that made _her_ uncomfortable, "They’re wrong?”

Taking control of her laughter she forced herself to soften towards this man that Jane and Darcy seemed to trust, but whose presence had her on edge, that Jane and Darcy seemed to trust. “Very much so. I believe your tales have confused me with my mother.”

“Ah.”

“Yes.”

“It’s nice—an honour to meet you at any rate.” He extended his hand. “Erik Selvig.”

Sif eyed it and the man, but she could not see any reason to distrust him, though something inside her ate at her as she looked upon him. Something she could almost place. She took his hand and shook it. “As well.”

From behind them Coulson spoke for the first time since they had entered the room. “Well now that we’ve all made our introductions I’ll be leaving. If you have any questions, Dr. Foster, let Dr. Selvig know. He’s aware of how the base functions. I’ll speak to both of you later.”

The doors slid shut behind Coulson and Jane immediately peppered Erik with questions. Darcy hopped to claim herself an area to call her own and Sif stood, taking in the room.

It had a cold nature like the rest of the base. Glass windows, smooth, thick grey walls, metal tables, and no sense of warmth whatsoever. She narrowed her eyes at the man, Selvig. He didn’t feel like a threat but there was… something. Sif made herself walk around the room, taking in its shape, its smell, getting familiar. She set the things she had been carrying since leaving Jane’s van, heavy with her armour, on one of the metal tables.

It would do.

Then feeling a pair of eyes on her, she spun around, searching in the direction where she felt the gaze.

Erik and Jane were in deep conversation over at one corner; neither looked at her.

Darcy was setting up her own little area.

There was no one else in the room beside them.

Yet…

There was an undercurrent of something in the room. A shiver went through her and she felt as if a whisper of fingers had suddenly trailed down her neck. Her hand flew up to clamp over the spot where her skin still tingled. Her eyes darted around, but there was nothing there.

All of the muscles in Sif’s body tightened.

She did not like this place.

 

—

 

The remainder of the day was spent unpacking, making sure things were to Jane’s specification, getting familiar with the base, frowning over the lack of Pop-Tarts and Lucky Charms — Darcy and Sif, respectively —  in the cafeteria and getting settled. Jane managed, of course to get some work in. It was nice to have a bed again, Sif had to admit, but the quarters that SHIELD gave them didn’t have the oversized windows that would let the sun filter through in the mornings. There was no way she could run in the desert anymore, the wind was shut out from the base.

It was closed off and secure, but part of Sif thought: _cage_.

That night shadows fell heavily over the room as soon as she shut of the lights and Sif slept fitfully with dreams that had her tossing and turning all night.

 

—

 

 _”What are you doing here, Sif?”_

“Loki?”

“Why are you here? Why did you come?”

 

Eyes snapping open with a jolt, Sif woke with his name stuck in her throat.

The room was dark and cold. She fingered her sheets and sighed. Dreams of Loki weren’t unfamiliar for her, especially since his fall, but tonight the dream had felt different. Almost as if she could have reached out and touched him while in it.

Awake now, she could not relax her body enough to return to sleep and so she stayed were she was, staring at the dark ceiling on her thin bed, counting the steps of the guards that patrolled the halls, until the small digital clock shaped like a frog that Darcy had given her croaked signaling it was time to start the day.

 _Loki, why can I not stop thinking of you,_ Sif sighed as she flung the sheets from her body and strode to the bathroom.


	4. Chapter 4

As the first week passed in this new — newer — place, Sif began to feel increasingly more caged with each passing second. Puente Antiguo had the open sky and the desert and Sif could walk around the town or head to the roof. Her comings and goings weren’t monitored and though she had only spent a scant number of days in the town, it had begun to feel familiar in a way. Here, every time she heard the _beep!_ of one of the doors as she swiped her ID through the keycard monitor she felt the urge to throttle someone.

She did not feel easier around Erik either. It vexed her for she could see no reason the man should bother her so. He was kind to Jane and Darcy, clever enough she supposed and except the few times where his words felt wrong in a way she could not describe, there was nothing terribly out of place about the man.

It was their fifth day in this new place and Sif felt, well, fidgety. Thanks to Erik, she had found a sort of small training room on the base filled with machines that helped with physical activity. With Darcy’s help she figured out the one called the ‘treadmill’ which simulated moving ground so she could run. It helped, but only so much. She could not look to the stars and search for Asgard. She could not call Heimdall and know he was listening. Her only company were SHIELD agents that filtered through the area and worked on some of the other machines and the sounds of the tele-vision that played in the room.   

Today it didn’t seem to help. There was just something in the air and she felt like a viper coiled to strike. She hadn’t been able to find one of the throwing knives this morning either and that weighed on her. Since her arrival, she had tucked one of Loki’s knives into each of her boots and their metal pressed between the leather and demin all day. Today only one kept her company and it ate at her. She did not have many possessions and as Darcy and Jane were not fans of weapons — Darcy’s taser aside — she did not know where it could have gone.

Sif was not known for misplacing things. And it was not as if she had much on Midgard. The throwing knives, along with her armour, sword and glaive were the only items from Asgard she kept. She could not lose them.

When she was younger and she misplaced something it was easy to know what had happened to it. Loki had always been a trickster and nicked her hairpins, ribbons, and brooches if she was ever so careless as to lose one while during a spar but he always gave them back—most of the time. The memory made her smile even as her heart clenched with grief.

She wondered again where she had left that dagger.

Not knowing only added to her foul mood.

Her mood did not go unnoticed, either. Darcy, who was normally as bright and cheerful as the sun, had practically shoved her out of the lab and told Sif to get herself some sugar or _I dunno, kill someone - not me - with you death glare today_ because of it. Sif wished she could, kill something, or maybe just injure. But as it was, there was no one, and Jane had warned her away from engaging with SHIELD agents for some reason, so it only left getting sugar as only option for things to do.

SHIELD’s mess hall, or cafeteria as they called it, was full of long tables and uncomfortable chairs. They had an adequate dessert section even if she did miss the sweets of Asgard and its golden apples.

Grabbing a tray, she paid no mind at the strange looks she received and loaded it with desserts. Darcy was right, sugar was what she needed. It couldn’t hurt at any rate.

In the middle of her third piece of dessert, someone dropped into the seat across form her. At first she thought it was Darcy or Jane, but when she looked up she was faced with the rather familiar face of a SHIELD agent.

“Hey, there, what did the apple pie do to you?”

Ah, Agent Barton.

Sif scowled, “Nothing.”

“Then why are you attacking it like it killed your puppy?”

It was moments like this, Sif missed Darcy and her translation of Midgard’s idioms, but this time Sif snorted, understanding his meaning. “It is not the pie. I am in a mood.” She frowned and added, “Darcy kicked me out of the lab.”

The man was smart enough not to laugh though Sif could tell he wanted to. “Ah.”

She ate the rest of her pie, peacefully and patient. He drank his coffee. When she started in on the carrot cake, his raised raised his eyebrows.

“So.”

“Yes?”

“You’re like that Thor guy, right?”

Sif kept her posture loose but she immediately was put on edge. While they hadn’t exactly disclosed who she was publicly she did not know that everyone on the base knew she wasn’t from Midgard. Though that could explain why they all watched her with wary or fascinated eyes.

She took a pointed bite from her cake. “I am.”

“Cool.” He leaned back on his chair, taking a long sip from his coffee.

Knowing the word from Darcy’s copious use of it, she relaxed slightly.

“And can you fight like him?”

This question caught her off guard, but she saw no reason to lie. “I am a better fighter than Thor, actually.”

His eyes brightened with interest, “Really?”

“Really.” It was not a lie. Thor had more brute strength and power behind his punches thanks to his build and size, but Sif had always been quicker and clever in the field. The only one that had ever matched her in hand to hand had been Loki.

“Co-ol,” he dragged the word out and took another sip of coffee. “So wanna spar? I kinda wanna see what you got. I saw what your buddy was made of last time he was here and I gotta say he knew his stuff.”

Sif blinked and then a slow grin grew on her face.

 

—

 

Finally, a fight.

Sif rolled each shoulder back in anticipation. She’d had to head back to her room and change back into the clothes she arrived with on her first day on Midgard. The only piece of clothing she had on her that belonged to this realm the 'sports bra' she had bought. So much handier than her bindings, which would have taken too long to put on.

It felt good to wear her own clothes again. Her real clothes. The leather of her breeches pressed comfortably against her skin and only increased her anticipation of a proper spar.

Across from her Barton was shedding his jacket and she eyed the wrapping he had covering his right shoulder. It extended all the way down his arm to just above the elbow.

Curious, she tilted her chin towards it. “What happened there?”

Barton shrugged his bound shoulder, "The job."

Sif rolled her eyes, "Will it affect your fighting? I do not need a mediocre partner."

"Don't worry, it's not bad. Just a Hydra agent that got a lucky hit. Just a little sore." He stepped on to the mat set up in the middle of the room and grinned. "Let's do this. I was always a little disappointed I didn't get to go one on one with your buddy."

She fought not to laugh. _Let's do this indeed_ , Sif thought to herself. Her body had been humming since Barton had suggested the fight. It had been too long and Sif was ready. She stepped onto the mat.

They circled each other for a second, sizing one another up. His stance was practiced, hands lifted near his face. _They were doing this without weapons so he would need to protect his face. Excellent_ , Sif thought. A real fighter. She'd seen some of the SHIELD agents as they trained while she ran, and while they were adequate enough she supposed for Midgard she saw too many weaknesses in their stances.

He rushed at her first and Sif thought: perfect.

She side-stepped him easily and aimed a blow to his head. Barton was quick enough and ducked, almost catching her off balance when he aimed a punch for her side.

She struck out her leg at the same time and caught him in the thigh.

Barton stumbled back but Sif had the momentum. She shot out with her left arm, but he blocked with his right and pushed himself a step forward. Her right elbow bent, she turned her body and jabbed her joint inot his wrapping.

Grunting, Barton narrowed his eyes. "Is that why you asked? I thought you cared."

Sif grinned, feral. "Never tell an opponent just how badly you're injured, agent."

"Noted."

He went down to sweep at her legs and almost caught her ankles. It was her turn to stumble back and the following punch was a surprise, but it only served to make her want to win this more.

They stepped back and circled each other once more. He was quicker than she had expected but he used his bulk for power, his speed just made him more efficient. Slighter, built more like Fandral, though he fought more like Thor.

Striking out at each other again, almost at the same time, he swung his arm just as she aimed her punch and for the next couple minutes it's just the fight. They were as close to evenly matched as they could be for an Aesir and mortal. He blocked her strikes just as she blocked his.

She lifted her knee in a turn and connected with his back, bringing him down to one knee and then he performed a quick maneuver, dropping and spinning, so similar to one of Loki's that it had her scrabbling for proper her footing.

 _The first time she saw Loki move like that she had bit her lips and for the first time did not deny her want for him._ The memory surprised her.

He came back up with a jab that caught her jaw. Angry at herself for her split-second lapse in concentration, she dropped her shoulder and leaned forward and flipped him over. They parried back and forth for a few more seconds but she had the higher stamina and she could tell that Barton was reaching that point in the fight where it was time to finish it.

She was fine with that.

Next time he rushed at her, she moved into his path and they grappled. He had her by her torso, she had his arms in a lock. Then she grinned.

Barton blinked. "Wha--"

A head butt really helped no one in a fight -- something Loki said once -- but pain aside, it always was a bit of fun. And it worked.

His head snapped back and Sif used his disorientation to aim four very well placed hits with her leg to his side. She was always told that her knees were as sharp as daggers. His arms went slack and she pushed Barton off.

The man went to his knees and he wheezed out a series of short breaths.

"Fuck," he whispered raggedly, looking up at her. "I think I just died."

Sif laughed and with the back of her hand wiped at her brow. Offering him the other, she said, "You are fine."

Barton took her hand and levered himself up, "Tell that to my kidneys."

"You were the one that offered to fight."

Whatever Barton would have said next was cut off by a familiar voice.

"Holy crap, that was so Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets Fight Club— I don't even know.”

Darcy walked up to them, her eyes wide behind her glasses, and gave Sif one hearty punch on the arm. "Shit, Sif, I knew you were badass, but that was like next level badass, how you just beat his ass up."

"Hey!" Barton frowned, rubbing at his wrapped shoulder and grimaced. Sif did feel a twinge of guilt there, but a fight was a fight.

Darcy waved Barton off, "Dude, she did. And it was awesome."

"Yeah, awesome. Excuse me while I go to the infirmary and tell the doctor that just finished patching me up that what six Hydra agents couldn't manage to break our visiting god did in under ten minutes.” Barton shuffled out of the room stiffly with a weak wave and Sif bit her lip.

"What's Hydra?" Darcy's voice piped up next to her.

Sif shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I doubt they are — what do you called them? The Good Guys’.”

"Hmm." Darcy offered up the bottle of water she held which Sif took gratefully. "So how come you guys were fighting?”

Collecting her loosened hair back into a tight tail, her lips curled. "It was a friendly spar."

"Oh yeah, real friendly," Darcy snorted, eyeing Sif's jaw.

"Did you want something, Darcy?"

The young woman stuck her tongue out and then tapped her chin in an exaggerated manner. "Did I want something... Did _I_ want something?"

Sif playfully nudged Darcy's shoulder.  "Fine, fine. It wasn't me anyway. It was Jane. She wants you in the lab when you can -- probably after you shower, and let me tell you it makes me happy to know even gods sweat a little -- because she said Erik is showing her or telling her something and it might help with our Rainbow Bridge problem."

Sif wondered what Selvig had to contribute in regards to the Bifrost and told Darcy she'd be there shortly.

 

—

 

The new lab was a busy place when Sif walked into it. There were a couple SHIELD scientists by one of Jane’s boards, scratching notes into their notebooks as they stared at the board in wonder. Darcy was in her corner on her laptop and Jane seemed to be in discussion with Erik and a tall dark man with an eyepatch. Jane did not look happy.

Commander, was the first thing that popped into Sif’s mind as she took in his stance. This was a man in charge.

Making a decision she made her way to Darcy, dragging a chair with her. “Who’s that speaking with Jane and Erik?”

Darcy glanced over her shoulder quickly, “Uh, Nick Fury. Or Commander Fury as Coulson introduced him as. Uber badass and like SHIELD supreme leader. He like snatched Erik away a few weeks ago to work on something for him and now he’s here because, from what I’ve picked up by not eavesdropping _at all_ , Jane managed to get whatever it was they were trying to get Erik to do and she didn’t even really do it on purpose.”

For many reasons Sif was fond of Darcy, but near the top of the list was that Darcy could take in the scope of a room, decide what was important, and find out everything she needed to know without even looking like she was trying.

Sif hummed, considering Darcy’s words. “But Jane was looking to open the Bifrost.”

Darcy made a sound of agreement and gave another wary look to the group.

Oh.

Jane’s voice suddenly rang out. “How could you not tell me?”

Sif and Darcy did not even pretend they weren’t paying attention to the outburst. They shared a glance before they stood and moved closer. When they got near Jane, the man with the eyepatch—Fury—aimed a look at them that had them stopping not quite at Jane’s side but close enough to be able to listen to what was being said.

“Dr. Selvig was working under my express orders,” he said, his voice as hard as his look.

Jane didn’t spare him a glance as she stared at Erik.

Erik spoke uneasily, “You said you were building a particle accelerator that would send a strong enough signal to Thor’s world. It didn’t seem pertinent to the project.”

“Are you kidding me? It could be used as a power source. You were trying to use it as a way to open the Bridge!” Jane said, trying in vain not to raise her voice.

“As a _possible_ way to open the Bridge, Jane. We don’t really know how to harness its power.” Erik tried to placate Jane, but she rolled her eyes. “It might have not helped at all.”

“You found an actual tesseract pulsing with vacuum energy, Erik. How does that not help me?”

He seemed to be at a loss for words. “You were building a particle accelerator,” he repeated.

“Yes, I know that, but when I realized that in the long run it wouldn’t work, I thought of something else.” Jane grit her teeth before addding, “I sent you an email.”

“You did?” Erik asked innocently enough, but there was something in his tone that made the hairs on Sif’s neck stand up.

Jane did not see seem to notice anything wrong in his tone and continued speaking. “After a few tries I realized I also needed an energy source to handle opening the bridge and keeping it open, because that’s the main issue. We can send as many signals as we want to bounce back and forth, but without a way to open the doors at either end of the bridge and keep them open for travel there’s no point.

“That’s why I asked for Stark’s new element. It’s the only element outside tridium to handle that kind of power, and even when I tried the tridium it could barely hold up for longer than a second. Stark’s element held the bonds for almost a full minute after it stabilized and then broke apart.”

“Which is how we got Sif here.” Darcy added from Sif’s side. “Go Stark…”

The man, Fury, only gave Darcy a long look that had her shrinking back to Sif’s side. Sif laid her hand over Darcy’s shoulder in support.

Jane looked over at them, “Yes, that’s how Sif arrived. She was at her end of the Bridge—the Bifrost, and when the wormhole opened she fell through. She was lucky, considering how unstable the connection was in the first place.”

“But it opened,” Fury said. He kept his attention on Jane, and it was a testament to Jane that she didn’t flinch under his intense gaze.

“Yes, it opened, but it was dangerous for us _and_ and for them.” Jane stated, “It’s why I’ve been trying to find an alternative way to more stably power the equipment.”

Fury’s lips seemed to curl but Sif would not call the look on his face a smile. “I thought as much, Dr. Foster. It’s why we brought you here.”

Jane pressed her lips together. “Right, okay. So, the tesseract.”

Fury stepped back, gave Jane and Erik one last look and started towards the door. “It will be arriving in the morning. I expect a full report on your findings by the end of the week.”

He left the room without another word.

Sif turned towards Jane who was leaning against her table. “A tesseract.”

“I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you about it, Jane,” Erik apologzied uneasily.

The hard look that Jane had given him before softened now, “It’s fine, Erik. Fury doesn’t seem like the kinda guy that’s big on sharing.”

They grinned at each other briefly but Sif set her mouth in a tight, grim line. It was gone now, that strange feeling, but just a moment ago, and only for a second, there had been something about Erik once again that had made Sif tense.

 

—

 

Because she still felt agitated she decided to take a walk that night. They hadn’t left the SHIELD base since they arrived but as closed off as it was there was a small open area towards the back where Jane takes to watching the stars when she couldn’t sleep. Sif only ran into her twice during these moments and she wasn’t there when Sif walked there that night.

Jane’s trailer was also camped nearby, sitting empty on the edge of base.

She didn’t call to Heimdall because she could hear the SHIELD guards patrolling the perimeter, but she thought about it. She also thought that it was possible that the guardian already has his eyes on her and that Thor was standing watch with him. It comforted her a little.

The stars were still unfamiliar to her, but she could pick out the one they call The Hunter.

If—When Jane succeeded, Sif would finally go home. She wondered if she’d look out her window in the palace and think of Midgard when she looks to the stars. Try and find it in Asgard’s sky.

The wind was cooler than it was in Puente Antiguo and it passed through her hair, sending it fluttering across her eyes. Moving to push it back, she froze, her hand brushing her forehead..

The air felt both thick and thin, an interesting contrast she did not dwell on. Power, magic, her senses told her, but she knew of no sorcerers on Midgard. There was no way. Night did however seemed to fall quicker now and she felt her belly tighten in anticipation, but for what, she wondered, as her skin felt it was being pulled tight over her muscles.

Everything taut, warm, and on edge in the sweetest, most peculiar way.

It was familiar feeling, but it couldn’t—

 _You are the only thing I truly miss_ , the ghost of Loki’s voice spoke in her thoughts.

She shook her head at the thought and what it invoked. She turned away from the empty space in front of her and stalked off to her room.

Yggdrasil be damned, Midgard has made her so incredibly maudlin.

 

—

 

In the morning, listening to to Jane and Darcy debate something called _Mythbusters_ as they broke their fast, Sif nibbled on her toast and sipped her coffee. Her thoughts from the night before still plagued her and it did not help that her dreams still were shadowed blendings of memories and things never to be, but she woke each morning with Loki’s name on her lips or on her mind.

Just as Darcy began her side of the argument of how they actually had proof of certain myths, Erik strode into the mess hall. He nodded his greeting and signaled to Jane.

“It’s here.”

Jane jumped from her seat rattling the table slightly, causing Darcy to curse and lift her cup lest it slip over.

“Jeez, Jane.”

“Sorry, but I need to get to the lab. The tesseract just got here.” Jane rushed from the room with Erik on her heels, calling over her shoulder, “Come in as soon as you can! Both of you!”

Darcy set her drink back down on the table and pulled Jane’s plate of half-eaten eggs and pancakes to her. She grinned at Sif and asked, “Half and half?”

Sif still had her eyes on trained on the spot where Jane’s figure had left the room. She wondered what this tesseract was.

“Sif?”

She flicked her attention back to Darcy, “Hmm?”

“Half and half?” Darcy pointed to Jane’s plate.

Sif stood, “No, thank you. I’ll see you in the lab.”

“Well, at least let me take this to go.” She heard Darcy mumble behind her but Sif was already following Jane and Erik’s footsteps.

 

—

 

Jane and Erik were crowded over a medium sized black metal box no bigger than some of Sif’s chests back home when she entered the room.

Jane glanced up as Sif approached. “Hey. Curious?”

“Very,” Sif replied. “Is that your tesseract?”

Jane’s eyes were dreamy as she looked into the box. “It’s amazing. An actual tesseract. I wonder where they found it. How they found it!” She grabbed at Sif’s arm and pulled Sif to her side.

Out of all the things Sif thought she would see when she looked into the box, what she actually saw what the last thing she imagined.

Glowing blue inside a clear container was a cube.

Her mind snapped back to the legends of her world.

“That is a Cube of Power,” she breathed so softly that she doubted Jane, close as she was, heard her.

She had though and she rounded on Sif. “You know what it is?”

Sif could look not away, utterly confused how such a thing managed to find its way to Midgard.

“Sif, what is it?” Jane repeated, louder this time, calling Sif’s attention back to her.

“It is a magical object. I do not know much about it; the magics were never my skill.”

Sif thought of Loki, of the things he mentioned he read and of the books he left in her rooms. She would flip through them from time to time, bored and curious, but never put much stock in them. They were Loki’s domain and now she wished she had questioned him more about what he’d learned when he would start in on his speeches, instead of distracting him. Though he had always been game for the distractions, she thought, a wicked glint flashing in her eyes.

Clearing her throat she faced the group whose attention she still held and tried to remember what she could. “It’s a very powerful object. There was a rumour that the Allfather once found one and used it in battle against the Jotunn at one time, but its power was too great and afterwards he hid it from the realms in the roots of Yggdrasil.” Fury gave her a look but Sif continued, “I do not know its exact properties but its energy can be harnessed to control all manner of things.”

“Like?” Jane questioned.

Sif shrugged and said, “Anything, if the user can control it properly.”

“So theoretically, I could use the energy to open a wormhole—to open the Bifrost.”

Sif faced at Jane, nodding, and stepped towards the cube. It pulsed blue in its container and even Sif could feel the power it resonated.

Could this be her way home?

Her fingers hovered in the air above it and her mind whispered, _touch it, feel the energy_. She curled her fingers back. She met Jane’s excited eyes over her shoulder.

“You need to be careful with this, Jane. Its power is unlike anything you’ve ever known.”

Jane sobered slightly and while the excitement still danced in her eyes it was tapered down by cool intellect.

Erik stepped between Jane and Sif, “Come on, Jane, let me show you what I’ve learned from it so far.”

Jane turned to Erik and nodded. “We need to get some readings on this thing. If it’s as powerful as Sif says then we need to be careful how we set about using it to open the bridge.”

“We will be,” Erik said, grabbing the container that held the cube.

As they moved away to another corner of the lab Sif once again felt the sensation of fingertips on her neck, drifting down to her collarbone, currently bared in one of the tops she had bought in Puente Antiguo. Her hand slapped up to cover the spot and a shiver ran dow her spine. Casually taking in the room, her eyes narrowed.

This time she was sure she felt the shimmer of magic in the air.

 

—

 

It was when she entered the room and she saw the previously curved blade of the previously missing throwing knife on the small table that it all clicked together.

Her fingers reached out to brush the cool metal only to find it still warm. Her eyes widened and she already had the throwing knife in hand as she ran from her room.

 _Loki, what are you doing?_ , was the only thought in her mind as she moved swiftly.

Her feet took her to the lab without knowing how he could be there. But she did. Everything inside her told her so. The inexplicable sensation in the air since she arrived on the base she now realized it was his magic, thick yet light and crowding around him like a shield. If she had not known him, grown up with him practicing his tricks and games on her and Thor his tricks and games, had rolled her eyes at him when he conjured wine in bed, and shrouded them in shadows to steal kisses she would not know texture of his magic. But she did. She knew it too well. 

Everyone’s attention turned to her as she rushed into the room, barely remembering to swipe the blasted ID through its little box. 

Her eyes narrowed taking in the room and the dagger — Loki’s dagger — seemed to pulse in her hand. _It will always return to its master in battle_. Loki had told her that once. 

She did not think as she threw the knife. Did not break her focus even as her friends’ eyes flew open in shock.

"Show yourself!"

The dagger flew through the air.

He shimmered into being then, causing several shocked outcries from the people nearby but Sif paid them no mind. The throwing knife flashed in his hands as he spun it between his fingers idly.

Sif felt as if it had lodged in her throat.

Loki was alive.

He was alive.

"I figured the dagger would do it, though I'm surprised it took you this long." His teeth flashed briefly, just as deadly as the dagger.

The urge to slap him, punch him, or kiss him twisted and tangled up inside her.

"Loki, how?" The words felt strangled as she pushed them out.

He looked... like Loki. His face was paler -- something she previously had thought impossible -- his eyes seemed wilder and his hair had grown a little, curling over the edges of his coat, since last she saw him. But the planes of his face were the same and--it was Loki. He was alive.

He gave her a fluid shrug, the sharp line of his mouth curl minutely at one end.

Fury bubbled up in her.

"Answer me!" She demaded. Intent on -- slapping him, kissing him, punching him -- _something_ , anything, she crossed the room purposefully. He did not move back nor had she expected him to. His smile only grew, cold and sly, which only served to propel her forward.

"Sif, you seem angry."

Punching him was certainly winning.

"You are dead. You _were_ dead," and that could _not_ be not her voice. It sounded broken and full and it could not be hers. Loki's eyes flared with an emotion she could not discern. She could not afford to. "How are you here?"

The curl of his lips was gone and now she only stood before the carefully blank faced of Loki. Her anger warred with her grief and joy, and it had her curling her hands in his coat and pushing him back against the wall. The force of it had the shelves rattling and somewhere in the back of her mind she heard Jane gasp. Heard the sound of SHIELD agents amassing around them.

"You were dead," Sif repeated. Her nails dug into her skin through the material of his coat.

Loki only stared; unreadable, unyielding.

His hands lifted from his side with more care than she had ever seen from him and she forced herself to keep her eyes on his when his fingers brushed against the line of her jaw. It was the only movement he'd made since materializing into the room and catching the dagger. His eyes were so vividly green in front of her face.

"I am not dead, Sif," he said, never looking away from her.

No, he wasn't. She could feel him solid and rigid under her hands. Their bodies were not touching -- her hands only touched the coarse material of his coat -- save where his fingers pressed lightly on her jaw. It was their only point of contact and when he broke it, she worked at keeping her face controlled and neutral.

Pushing her away from him, almost gently, the change was instantaneous and the sly look on his face was back.

He stepped away from her and turned to the room. "Thank you for the information, Dr. Foster. It will be so very helpful." And with a mocking bow the room suddenly was covered in a cloud of darkness and Sif knew: he had slipped into the shadows.

He faded from their sight and Sif felt as if he took something of hers with him.

Later she realized, he had kept the dagger she had thrown.

Now, she faced a group of mortals who looked as if they had just been visited by a ghost. They would not be wrong to think this.

In a way they had.


	5. Chapter 5

Jane was the first one to approach Sif as the SHIELD agents aimed their weapon all around the room.

Somebody commanded that she not approach at her Sif, but Jane only half-heartedly waved her hand at them. Out of the corner of her eye, Sif saw Darcy take the opportunity to step in between Jane the SHIELD agents and begin a complicated stream of words that momentarily diverted their attention.

Silently, Sif thanked her friend.

"Sif?"

And now Sif turned to her other friend.

Jane's face was not one made for lies, Sif thought, as she could see every emotion, every thought plainly as Jane stood in front of her.

"Yes, Jane?" Her voice felt raw, odd since she had not yelled, but it was if her throat was coated with sand.

She could see all the questions in Jane's eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Sif wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry as well, but she thanked the stars for allowing the laughter to win out.

"Jane Foster," she said, laying her palm on the shorter woman's shoulders, "Thor could not have found someone better."

Jane blinked and her hands reached up to cover Sif's wrist. "Sif? Who--what just happened?"

Sif looked away from Jane's too open and trusting face. Behind Jane, Darcy hand convinced the agents that there was no longer a threat and was coordinating everyone out of the lab with the help of Agent Barton. She kept glancing over her shoulder to where Sif stood with Jane. Catching Darcy's eye, Sif tried to muster a reassuring smile but the sad flicker she saw in response told her she had failed.

"That was Loki," Sif answered Jane, stepping away from the smaller woman and touching fingers to her throat. "Thor's brother."

"I thought he died."

Sif shrugged and sighed. "So had we all."

"Oh. _Oh_."

"Yes." Sif needed to sit. She needed to think. Oh, how she wished she was home. Her eyes darted around and she dropped on the edge of Jane's desk. Her legs felt jellied under her.

Loki was alive. How?

"And he's been here the whole time?"

Jane was at her side at once, but to Sif she might as well have been on Asgard.

Her own voice sounded far away when she replied. “I do not know, Jane. It's possible."

“But why? And what does he want? How did you know he was here?”

“Okay, so who was that? Because seriously I don't even know what bullcrap I just spouted to those SHIELD agents to get them out of there, but it worked, and I'm pretty sure we're going to get a visit from Big Bad Coulson and Bigger Badder Nick Fury. Sif, you okay? You're looking as pale as that guy. That guy who poofed out of the room.”

The questions buzzed in Sif's mind and she could hear the worry in Jane and Darcy's voices.

How? _How_ was it possible?

“It was Loki, Darce. Thor's brother.”

Loki was alive and he just hid it from them?

Why?

“Loki? The same guy who sent metal man to burn us to a crisp? I thought Thor took care of him. What happened there?”

"I don't know!" Sid suddendly snapped, hands slapping down on the desk and making the objects on it rattle. Jane and Darcy jumped. She pushed herself off and stalked across the room and back. Her hands dragged through her hair.

"I don't know!" She reiterated crossly.

She could kill him. _Kill_ him. _How dare he let them think he was dead?_ Did he not know they mourned him? How his mother missed his smile and his brother missed his wit? How she missed _him_?

It was Jane's gentle touch that brought her back.

"Sif."

Her vision cleared from the haze of heartache and anger she had enveloped herself in.   

"Sif," she repeated. "Deep breath."

Sif did as she was told. Breathed. She felt better — mostly.

"Okay, why don't we go back to my room--actually, let's go to the trailer and you'll fill us in. Darcy, get us some food and tea... whatever Erik drinks when he has headaches." Jane asked of her assistant and Sif heard Darcy's cautious reply.

Sif felt Jane's slim arm wrap around her waist. "Now, let's get out of here. Erik, you can deal with the lab can't you?"

Erik replied but Sif and Jane were already walking out of the lab.

 

—

 

She told them all that she could about what happened. They crowded into Jane's trailer at the edge of the base and Sif folded her long limbs onto Jane's bed with Darcy next to her. She explained about Loki, about what happened on the Bifrost, how they all thought him to be dead, and how she still didn't understand why he had done it at all it.

Jane and Darcy listened patiently only interrupting when they were confused about something. Jane took notes, Sif noticed, but only when she spoke of the Bifrost.

Darcy handed her tea and sweets. Sif couldn’t help think that there were no better people in this realm than these women.

Once she had finished her tale, Darcy asked the one question that no one in Sif's very long life ever thought to ask her.

"Sif, were you two... together?" She spoke the last word softly as if she understood how closely Sif guarded the answer.

Sif considered lying or evading the question, but she knew exactly what they had seen. There were no secrets on Midgard.

"Yes."

The word felt like freedom and a curse.

Jane spoke next, asking quietly, "And now?"

Sif leaned back against the wall of Jane's trailer and closed her eyes for a second. Her gaze was steady when she looked back at them a moment later.

"I do not know."

 

—

 

Fury and Coulson arrived the next day.

When asked about Loki she answered truthfully, omitting certain facts she thought had no place in SHIELD’s records. When they asked what he wanted, she said she didn’t know.

It wasn’t a lie.

She had ideas, but Loki’s thoughts had always been a mystery even to her.

 

—

 

That night she entered her room, exhausted. She had to admit mortals could talk and produce an almost overwhelming amount of paper work. There were reports to be filled about Loki’s little appearance and Sif was made to recount the event no less than five times. She almost stabbed the last SHIELD agent with his own pen when he asked her about it.

She felt so incredibly stupid. Loki was alive and he had played with her senses for days. She knew he was skilled enough to hide any traces of his magic from her but he hadn’t during her time here. The prickling sensations, the uneasiness she felt in the air — now she knew for certain it had been him all along.

Enough magic to let her know he had been in her presence but enough to keep himself hidden.

Clever, sly, bastard.

And she’d tell him as much.

“What are you doing here?” She spun abruptly in the small room to face him.

He wore human civilian attire, a suit that looked worn under a dark coat and a hideous olive green tie that she had the urge to grab him by. He looked as peculiar as Thor had that day they happened upon him in Jane’s lab, but the look on his face was pure Loki. His face was pinched and sallow, as if had not been eating enough, the quirk of his lips was more of an insult than a greeting.

“I might ask you the same, dear Sif, for I know how I came to be in this place.”

Her instinct was to lie, though she chose not give in. “Jane’s device pulled me through.”

“Ah, I see,” he walked to her bed and eyed how mess it was. “And what of Thor?”

Sif raised an eyebrow at his question, but answered. “He was not at the Bifrost when she opened the bridge.”

“But you were?”

“I was.”

“Hmm, interesting.” His eyes slid over to her. Her pulse tripped and hummed under her skin. “And why were you there, Sif? What reason did you have to be at the Bifrost? Heimdall feeling chatty after all these years?”

She had wanted to remain cool under his gaze, but she was not Loki with his talent of masking his emotions. She was Sif and so she snarled. “Do not play the fool.”

His grin flashed like a knife glinting in a dark room. “Did the lady miss me?” He stepped forward, almost close enough to touch, and she knew it for what it was: a challenge.

Sif had never been one to back down from a challenge and she surged forward. Twisting his tie in her hand she pulled him forward, only to shove him back against the small dresser in the room. Her mouth crashed over his. Her free hand raised to grip his neck and make him bend to her.

“Stop, stop talking,” she growled out against his lips, “Everything you say makes me angry.”

She thought she heard him laugh, but the sound was lost against her mouth as she bit down on his lip. Loki clutched at her tight to him, his mouth opened against her assault and it was a warmth and wetness she missed. One of his arms wrapped solidly around her frame and hauled her even closer to him. Sif let go of his tie and ran her hands through his hair. Their angle was awkward with her leaning — pushing — on him while his weight was pressed back on the dresser, but they made do. Loki’s body was as familiar as her own and her body welcomed the feel of it against hers. His fingers trailed down her side to grasp her thigh and haul it up against his. Her knee knocked against the wood of the dresser but she paid it no mind.

Half straddling his thigh, she pressed her body against his. His hands moved along her curves, impatient, pulling her tighter against him. They found skin as they moved past her shirt and she reveled at the feeling of his palms flush against her back. Trailing her hands down his neck, she tilted back, changing the angle of the kiss into something deeper, softer, and then drew back slowly. His pupils were blown wide and she could see herself mirrored in them.

The strong band of his arm around her waist kept her partially on him and on the ground. His lips were red and already bruising, as she knew hers were too.

“Why?”

“I thought everything I said made you angry at me?” The hand currently not clamped around her waist, trailed the line of her collarbone. His eyes suddenly were far away from hers.

Sif leaned closer, never afraid to use her advantage. “It does,” she told him honestly, “I still want to know.”

A look she couldn’t read flickered over the planes of his face. “Maybe I just wanted the throne.”

She practically could hear his walls closing in around him. She shoved at his shoulders, pushing him away. Gravity dragged her thigh against his. He dropped the arm from around her waist and she stood her ground, not willing to take a step back. “Don’t lie to me. You’ve never wanted the throne.”

His fingers combed through his hair. She couldn’t help but note how it was curlier than he normally allowed himself it to be.

“People change, Sif.”

“People can, and you might have, but I know you. Had you wanted the throne you would have never gone about it in such a way.”

He pressed his lips into a thin line. “Know me so well, do you?”

Her face set like granite. “Yes.”

Something softened in him for a second before the final wall came down. He leaned into her, traced his index finger down the line of her cheek. His voice was icy and smooth in her ear. “Maybe once. People change.”

Her eyes opened — Sif had been unaware they had closed — and she glanced around at the empty room. Breath escaped her as if had been locked in her throat.

She took a staggering step back and that’s when she saw it.

Her mirror was glowing.

 _I am not the only one after it_ , she read in glinting green high Asgardian on her mirror.

Loki.

What are you up to?

The words didn’t feel like a threat, but a warning. A warning to what though? Someone after the tesseract? But Sif did not know who else would be after the object, and if SHIELD had any thoughts about the matter, they had not shared it.

Yet Loki knew something, and Sif did not to doubt him. She might not understand the choices he had made, but she knew Loki and despite everything, she trusted him.

 _I am not the only one after it_ , she read again and let her eyes drop to her weapons propped against the chair.

A warning.

She reached into her boots and clasped the throwing knife she still had flattened her other hand to the mirror. The words shone brightly for another second before they faded from the glass.

She was so warned.

 

—

 

With Jane busy looking for a way to properly harness the cube’s energy and Darcy helping, well as making as sure Jane ate at random intervals of the day, Sif was left to her own devices. She peeked into the lab near mid-morning and saw Jane marking some numbers down on one of her wide glass boards. Darcy was clicking away at the computer, her head nodding along to the music heard coming through her music device. Erik was in his corner, reading over some papers, stopping every once in a while to note something down. There were two SHIELD agents guarding the room.

Satisfied they were distracted enough by their work, she made her way across the base to where Coulson worked. Fury had left yesterday after he debriefed them. Coulson had mentioned he and Agent Barton would stay on a few more days.

When she reached a point where her ID badge wouldn’t let her through, Sif rolled her eyes. She should have known.

Knocking on the door that stood between her and Coulson, she waited a few seconds before a young man in full SHIELD gear appeared from down the hall.

“Miss?” He clasped his weapon to his chest.

“The door won’t let me through.”

“Do you have clearance?”

Sif swiped her badge through the key card monitor for show. The light beeped red. “Seems that I don’t, but I need to speak with Agent Coulson. So if you could let me through.”

The young man swallowed. “Well, um, you don’t have clearance. No one goes through without clearance.”

Sif sighed. Mortals.

“Yes, I can see that, which is why I need you to get me clearance.”

“I can’t do that… ma’am. You’ll need to speak to whoever is in charge of your department.”

“Wonderful.” Sif looked down each end of the hall and then back to the young agent. “Seems I need to find a way get clearance then.”

The agent shifted where he stood and Sif almost felt bad for the poor thing. But like he said, she needed clearance. She struck out fast before he even saw her move, her knuckles connecting with his neck, and the agent choked for a second staggering backwards. Almost lazily, Sif hooked her foot around his knee and jerked, wincing in sympathy when his back hit the floor with a hefty thud. His weapon slipped from his hand and Sif kicked it away. Crouching over the man she snatched up his ID badge and went to swipe it on the monitor. This time it beeped a cheerful green.

“Thank you,” She grinned, dropping the badge back onto the panting man’s chest.

She stepped through the door and faced four more SHIELD agents with their weapons drawn. Annoyance bloomed in her.

“Stand down, men,” she heard from behind them and Coulson stepped through. He regarded Sif and then his agents. “Men, help Agent Martin. Ms. Sif, I take it you wanted to see me?”

Arms crossed, her mouth tightened. “In private.”  

Coulson nodded, “Of course. This way.” He led her through a few more hallways of SHIELD agents and rooms with large screens and computers. Finally they reached a door that lead to a comfortably sized office. Barton stood at one corner. She wasn’t surprised.

When Coulson closed the door behind them, Sif raised an eyebrow to the man. “Was your intention to make me hurt your agent or did you just want to know if I would?”

Barton snorted.

Facing her, Coulson settled behind his desk, his face was sober. “A little bit of both. You were quiet efficient.”

“Thank you, I suppose.” There were two chairs in front of her but Sif didn’t even considering sitting in one of them. “I need to ask you something.”

“I imagined.”

Though she was aware of Barton out of the corner of her eye, she kept her attention on Coulson.

“Who else wants the cube, Agent Coulson?”

His face remained impassive for the most part, but his eyes flickered. Behind her she felt Barton shift.

“What makes you think anyone else wants the cube, Ms. Sif?”

She merely stared back.

“Did your… friend say anything to you?”

“It was your reaction to him that made me aware of it. It’s a very powerful object, Agent Coulson, and until Jane came up with a way to work it you were intent on keeping it a secret. Yesterday, you were shown it was clearly not a well-kept secret, but until yesterday you also were not worried or aware of Loki. Objects like the cube are usually kept quiet when people are scared of others finding them. Now, who else wants the cube?”

Coulson smiled then, surprising Sif. “Barton told me that like your friend Thor, there was more to you than meets the eye.”

“A compliment, I’m sure.”

“It is.” Coulson stood, “Fact of the matter is that as much as your friend Dr. Foster wants Thor back, we here at SHIELD are very interested in his return as well. Your arrival has been a bit of a shock, but it seems that things can still work out.”

Sif regarded Coulson, confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Have you heard of Hydra, Ms. Sif?”

Sif glanced at Barton. “He mentioned it to me during our spar the other day.”

Coulson gave Barton a look, who shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

“Well, Hydra is a large organization and they’ve been on the hunt for the tesserect as well. We’ve been moving it from location to location to keep it away from them but they have an uncanny ability to find us.” He paused, regarding her, and she knew he was referring to Loki. What she hated was that he was probably right. “Dr. Foster has been the closest to figuring out how it works and that’s mainly why we’ve moved her to this facility. If Hydra finds out…”

Sif nodded, “I understand.”

“Do you?”

She fought not to glare at him. “Jane understands science and right now her goal is simply to open the Bifrost and get Thor back. I admire her for that — her determination. But I also know the lengths people would go in order to get something they coveted. Especially when it’s something of power. Jane, for all her brilliance, or perhaps because of it, doesn’t see the cube in such a way.”

Coulson nodded as well. “I see you do understand.”

“If this Hydra is after the cube, they will come after Jane. I won’t let them get to her.” She thought of Thor, who missed deeply Jane every day; of Loki’s warning, glowing bright with his magic and how he had touched her cheek; and she thought of Jane and Darcy, who took her in after her fall.

“Good,” Coulson said and motioned to Barton behind her. “Seems that Agent Barton was right in saying we could trust you.”

Barton walked up and winked. “I know a badass when I see one. Or when she kicks my ass.”

Sif smirked, “Another compliment, I take it.”

“Barton, why don’t you update Ms. Sif on what we know of Hydra’s current movement and escort her back to her lab.”

“Sir,” Barton gave a two finger salute and cocked his head towards the door.

But Sif had one last question for Coulson.

“What interest do you have in Thor’s return?”

Coulson, already back at his desk, barely looked up. “I’ll see you another time, Ms. Sif.”

Barton coughed to get her moving and Sif let herself be led out. It seemed she’d get no more answers out of Coulson today.

 

—

 

Sif chose not to tell Jane, Darcy or Selvig about her conversation with Coulson because she knew it would only worry them. _Maybe they should_ , she argued silently. Maybe the should worry about how for SHIELD the matter of the cube wasn't simply about Thor. The saw Jane in her lab, hair twisted up and held in place with a pencil, going over every calculation thrice just to be sure, and didn't want to cause one more reason for the dark shadows blooming under Jane's eyes to deep.

She had considered telling Darcy, if just to warn her to be careful, but Darcy would not be able to keep the truth from Jane.

It was better for now if they believed that they were perfectly secure and worked on finding a way to open the Bifrost.

Barton assured her that the last time they’d had a run in with Hydra had been in New York three weeks ago prior, and that the cube had been moved twice since. They should be safe.

This had calmed Sif slightly, but she knew Loki would have not warned her for nothing, so she began her proper training each day. She'd found a few more willing sparring partners amongst the SHIELD agents, though the first time she took her sword and glaive to the exercise area more than a few balked at her in full armour. It didn’t matter as much as most time she didn't really need a partner, but she was grateful for the days Barton would be be game enough to challenge her.

He was horrible with a sword but adequate with a staff. For the most part they stuck to hand to hand.

And eve though she enjoyed the exercise, Sif passed the time feeling on edge, as if the enemy was hovering just out of reach beyond the steamy horizon.

 

—

 

"You've been in Terminator mode the past few days, you know."

Sif peered up at Darcy from where she was flipping through a book of images called a 'comic book’. One of the SHIELD agents had left it in the mess hall that morning and Darcy had scooped it up on their way out. "I do not know what that means, Darcy."

Darcy hopped up on the desk and tossed the comic book aside. In her hands she cupped a mug of steaming coffee, kicking her feet. "Yes, you do. You haven't let me or Jane out of your sight in days."

"Physically impossible."

"Yeah, but you're like a god--goddess. And you know what I mean," Darcy raised one eyebrow. "If you're not with us in the lab, Clint is -- and did you know they call him Hawkeye, like a call sign? It's hilarious. -- and you've got laser eyes on that thing." She motioned with her head to the cube where Jane was fiddling with the wires, attaching some to her machine. Her little soldering iron in hand.

"It's a dangerous object," Sif remarked.

"Yeah and your boyfriend is after it, I get it, but that's not the only reason. What gives?"

Sif tensed at Darcy's mention of Loki, but tried not to let it show. Since his little performance and appearance in her room, he had not come back. Or if he had he was keeping his magic tightly under his control as not alert her to his presence. It worried her and it was only one more reason she felt so anxious.

Clearly, she hadn't been hiding it as well as she thought if Darcy was picking up on it.

Still, she had made a choice regarding their current situation.

"It's nothing for you to worry about."

"Bull."

"Pardon?" she feigned confusion.

Darcy kicked at Sif's legs, pouting. "Come on, don't play dumb. Tell me what's up and why you keep looking around the room like you expect an army to come out of the shadows." Darcy's eyes darted around the room and licked at her lips, "Wait, can he do that?"

"Make something appear as if out of thin air? Yes, but not a whole army," Sif patted Darcy's knee, reassuring. "Though if he were smart, he wouldn't pull such a trick with me around."

"Oh, okay. I was wondering." Darcy took a sip of her drink and eyed Sif over the rim.

Sif blew out a breath. Darcy might not seem like a patient person at first, but first impressions could often be wrong. The woman was as tenacious as Jane.

"Darcy, I promise you, you need not worry. I will not let anything happen to you or Jane. Or Erik."

"So you are scared of something happening."

"I'm merely being vigilant. Like you said Loki wants the cube and out of experience I can tell you Loki normally gets what he wants."

Sif suspected that Coulson had been right about Loki and that he had told this Hydra of the cube. But she knew Loki and if he wanted the cube for himself, then Hydra was just another pawn in his game. It infuriated her to think she too had become another piece on the board he was directing as well, though there was not much she could do about it at the moment.

He would be sorely mistaken, however, if he thought she would play by his rules and if he was foolish enough to think of of her friends as expendable pieces. Next time they saw each other they would be having a long discussion about how he thought he could just kiss her and leave her with some dire warning.

Darcy gently kicked at Sif’s legs again.

Sif looked up.

"You thinking of killing him or kissing him?" Darcy's smirk was outrageous and the laughter in her eyes was infectious.

Sif chuckled, "As usual, it is both."

Hopping back off the desk, Darcy handed Sif her still steaming coffee. "Here; finish it. I’m gonna go to the cafeteria and charm Agent Havers out of tomorrow morning’s doughnuts and a fresh pot of java--we got another long night ahead."

"Thank you, and I do mean it: I won't let anything happen to you or Jane."

"Never thought you would."

The doors slid shut with a hiss and a beep behind Darcy and Sif raised the cheerfully decorated mug to her lips. Coffee was indeed a beverage to be served in Valhalla.

Jane cursed behind her. By now Sif knew it meant Jane had accidentally burnt her hands on her little tool as she worked on her machine. She picked back up the comic book.

 

—

 

Darcy had been right. They were in for a long night. Sif watched as Jane, Erik and Darcy fixed calibrations, shifted through data, and started connecting wires to metal to more wires. She helped when she could, which mostly meant holding things steady as Jane fiddled with them and ensuring Darcy kept the coffee pot full.

“Good, if this test goes well, then I think we got it.” Jane whispered tiredly around four in the morning. Hair barely held up by a pen, dark circles under her eyes, and possibly wearing the same shirt for the last fourty-eight hours, Jane’s eyes never seemed more alive.

By this point, Sif was the only one still up to see her like this. Erik had gone for some fresh coffee this time and Darcy had long dropped off right at her desk, earphones hanging loose by the glasses she still wore. The soft, barely audible sounds of her music were the only sounds in the lab that did not belong to the machine.

“Are you sure, Jane?” Sif asked, eyeing the machine and the cube connected to it.

Jane gave a wild grin and a tired shrug. “I don’t know, but it’s best results we’ve gotten so far. Just this last test and we’ll see if the energy stays stable.” She walked up to the device and swallowed, the lines of her neck tight against muscle; her hands hovered over the device.

Sif touched Jane gently on her shoulder.

Jane turned on her machine and it hummed.

It _kept_ humming. Jane’s instruments beeped happily around them. The energy field was stable and holding.

Turning to each other they grinned.

Jane shut turned the machine off and spoke, her voice low. Out of weariness or thrill Sif did not know. “Tomorrow then.” Jane sighed, clutching her small black notebook and closed her eyes. “We open the Bifrost.”

 

—

 

Jane had sent a quick email to Coulson telling him about her plans for the morning, and then Sif insisted she get some sleep. She helped Jane take Darcy to bed and nodded to Selvig as he ambled into his room.

When the others were all setteld in their rooms, Sif walked back to the lab and straight to Jane’s machine and the cube that stood nearby.

The Bifrost.

She almost couldn’t believe Jane had managed another way. That she could be home in a matter of hours.

It was what she had wanted since falling to Midgard all those weeks go and now here it was. Her way home. She had it.

Staring down at the cube, her chest hurt, the skin over her collarbone and neck felt taut.

Loki was the only thought in her mind yet again. If she went returned, she would have to tell Thor and his parents he still lived. She had too. Didn’t she? Of course she did, he was greatly mourned. He was missed and while she was certian he wouldn’t go back, not yet, she might have better chance of convincing him to return with Thor at her side. The brothers had always been closer than many gave them credit for.

Yes, that was it. She’d go home and explain to his family that he still lived and then she would return with Thor and bring him back. Yes, that made sense.

Then why did it feel like she was somehow betraying him all over again?

Striding away from the lab, she glimpsed a flash of green but did not worry. With no audience but her, he wouldn’t bother trying try anything.

In her room, her mirror glowed.

 _Leaving me already, Sif?_

Message or taunt, she did not know, but she touched the mirror to let him know she received it. She did not say the words that floated through her head.

 _You left me first._


	6. Chapter 6

They gathered in the morning when the sun was still low in the east. The day had the feel of rain in the distance, but at the moment Midgard’s sun shone bright and pale in the sky.

Coulson had argued about running the experiment indoors to limit their exposure but Jane firmly expressed her concerns about opening a wormhole inside the building, especially considering the last time it had happened, it had blasted Sif into their world. Coulson reluctantly agreed with Jane in the end.

Of course, it meant that roughly twenty SHIELD agents had to accompany them.

Jane was right, after all. Opening the Bifrost was simply too dangerous to attempt while inside a building. Sif only knew of one structure that could withstand the power the Bifrost generated when it opened and Loki and Thor had lost it to the skies.

Helping Jane set up her 'doorway', as she called it, consisted of connecting the machine to the device that held the cube. The cube's power would then give her enough energy to open her doorway and send the energy across the realms. This would then stitch together the broken door on the other side, Jane explained. It had to be monitored carefully and Jane was still very cautious about the whole matter. Even now she glanced nervously at Sif as she planted the last of the nine pillars that served as conductors Jane used to evenly distribute the energy.

"Ready, Jane." Sif said, wiping off her hands on the breeches she wore today under her armour.

Jane titled her head back and stared at the sky. Sif wondered what she thought about. Or who. Then Darcy nudged her and Jane nodded, walking over to the machine.

She flipped open the laptop that was built into the main console where she would be controlling the energy output and signaled everyone to move back.

"Okay, remember we have to let the energy build and stabilize around the conductors before we can start opening the bridge." She began typing in her commands. "If the energy becomes too unstable, we could overload the machine or, God forbid, the cube and I don't think anyone wants that happening." She paused, looked back up to the sky, and then without looking back at her keyboard she pressed the last key.

The machine hummed. Its sound resonated around them and Jane carefully stepped forward with the cube in hand. She pressed it firmly into the opening where she had earlier shown Sif the cube would reside in order to fully power the machine. It was attached. Now in its hold, the cube began to pulse lightly.

Coulson walked up to Jane.

"How long will this take?” he asked, eyeing the cube with suspect amount of caution.

Jane shrugged. "With the Stark element it took like what, a hour? Darcy?"

Darcy was already pulling out a folding chair. "All my All Nighters playlists, so more like two." She tilted her chin up and toasted the SHIELD agents with her cup. "Get comfortable, guys."

Sif coughed to cover her laugh. Coulson did not look impressed.

"I see."

Jane bit at her thumbnail. "I don't want to risk overloading the conductors with the tesseract, so we need to keep a steady stream of energy.”

"Very well." Coulson stepped back, tucked one hand in his pocket and pulled out his phone. Immediately he pressed a button and put it to his ear.

"Jane," said Sif.

"Yes?"

"I'm sure Heimdall is already calling for Thor."

This made Jane smile.

Sif moved to sit at Darcy's side but she never got the chance.

The sound of thunder abruptly rumbled through the area, and remembering the last time this had happened, Sif spun around to try and spot where the Bifrost would open. It was still, quiet; the energy steadily gathering.

But the sound became louder and Sif looked up to where she could make out the black shapes high in the clouds. Three of them, descending quickly and every single one of her battle instincts went on alert.

It was Barton though that warned the group, also looking up to the same place Sif was. "Incoming!!"

The SHIELD agents instantly moved as one and aimed their weapons to the sky. The flying shapes came down faster and then men dropped from them. They opened fire and Sif did not think twice before reaching down to grab Darcy's arm, practically threw her towards Jane and Erik.

"Run! Hide in the trailer!" She yelled at them, pointing to go to the closest shelter she could see.

Coulson was also yelling, ordering men to secure the package, and as his men closed in around the cube Sif understood who these attackers were.

Hydra.

 

—

 

They descended from above with the speed of elves and the fury of Jotunn, Sif could not help but think. She was partly aware of Erik pulling Jane and Darcy with him to safer ground and it all seemed too familiar.

 _The Destroyer_ , she remembered, only she hadn't been alone then. Thor and the Warriors Three had been there to back her up. She felt alone now, even as SHIELD agents moved to cover the area and Hydra descended over them. The whirl of their machines as they hovered above them mimicked storm winds and kicked up the dust of the ground, whipping her hair into her eyes.

The fire from both sides’ weapons rang loud in her ears.

Sif spun open her glaive, ready to face any who came at her.

It was mere moment before the first her attackers rushed at her. She bent her knees and swiped at their feet. Moving faster than their eyes could track her she stabbed them in the chest as they fell. They hit the ground and Sif circled around to face the next wave.

She counted twice as many Hydra agents as SHIELD, only discernible to her by the fact their faces were covered.

Two more advanced on her and she vaulted over them, moving to strike at them as they whipped around to face her again. Using the momentum she gained from her vault, she struck one hard in the face with her heel and sent one careening back into the other. They fell the ground hard.

Keeping one eye on the still pulsing cube and machine, Sif quickly looked for her friends who, Odin's Ravens bless them, were keeping as far as they could from the weapons fire and fighting.

"Duck!" She heard, and recognizing the voice as Barton's Sif did.

She watched as his arrow soared past her and struck a Hydra agent in the throat. She tossed her head back in a nod of thanks to the man.  

Sif then leapt up, spinning her glaive above her head, behind her, grinned as she launched it across the fray. A Hydra agent rushing forward promptly dropped. Instantly, she pulled her sword out and fought her way to the glaive still pinning her adversary to the ground. The stray thought that she should have had Loki spelled it like his throwing knives floated through her head as it often did when in battle.

As several SHIELD agents fell, Sif had the dark thought that they were far out numbered. Something Hydra’s agents used to their advantage. As well as using the generated wind from their airborne machines, that kicked up dirt into the air into the SHIELD’s agents unprotected eyes. It didn't help that Hydra also had agents above them in the air, directing weapons' fire at them. Sif thought of metal fire raining down on them and was grateful when she saw Barton's arrows whizz in the air and hit one of the airborne agents.

They fell to the ground with a sickening thud Sif barely register.ed She continues to fight and noted grimly how two SHIELD agents had not made it through the latest round of gunfire.

Then it happened. The air began filling with the smell of burning metal — ozone, Jane had called it when Sif described it —  the same smell that occurred when Thor called down his power.

She wheeled on the machine.

Inside the device, the cube glowed a bright blue, like cold fire, and the air pulsed around it. Jane's pillars began vibrating in turn as the energy flowed through the current that connected them and they beat blue as well.

The Bifrost.

It was preparing to open.

Hydra agents moved hastily towards the device that held the cube and Jane's words of warning about disrupting the stream of energy ran out in Sif's mind. She rushed to the device and those who would steal the it.

There was too much going on around her, but she’s used to it. It's the way of the battlefield. Today however, she was not surrounded by armour clad men or Valkeries today. They are warriors, the people around her, though not in the strictest sense of the word. Then again, according to most Asgardian customs, she was not what they imagined a warrior to be either.

Lights and fires were seemingly everywhere, she could hear Jane shouting at Darcy and she heard as Darcy screamed back in reply. She felt the energy they were trying to control and contain dance wildly around her, filling the air with static and tension, ready to pop and implode, taking them all with it. They only had this chance. This one chance to fix it.

She was ready for what she had to do. Her hand tight around her glaive, she was ready.

It was then she heard something else.

Selvig yelled. The sound ripped from his throat across the open space. One word, a warning.

Immediately Sif turned to where Selvig was looking.

There _he_ was, smiling that insufferable smile of his, his eyes bright with magic and energy. He had something in his hand she could not see, but it did not matter, because she knew.

She knew what he was going do and it was then that her voice joined the rest of sound around them.

Her yell echoed in the wind.

Sif turned towards where the machine’s power was pulsing widely with the cube exposed and the wind only rushed by them even faster. The Bifrost was opening _now_ , but with all the chaos and magic around them, the situation had become too dangerous. If anything hit the machine now it would be catastrophic.

“Help me!”

Loki waited to answer her one beat too long and Sif sprinted forward without waiting. She wasn’t as proficient with the magics as Loki or in the sciences as Jane, but she’d spent lifetimes and weeks with both, and wagered she knew what needed to be done to stabilize the power of the cube within Jane’s device.

She only hoped it would work or else it would send her across Yggdrasil to Hel herself.

Fighting her way through Hydra agents with increased vigor, she had almost reached the cube when Loki’s figure appeared in front of her.

“Move!”

He stood in her path. She growled and pushed past him.

“Why do you protect them? What is so special about these _mortals_ that you and Thor would risk it all for them?” He pulled her to the side and sent a flurry of his daggers to the Hydra agent coming up behind her.

“How can you say such things? I do not understand! It’s like before, why ar—”

She broke off and in a smooth practiced gesture, easily dealt with the Hydra agent nearing them. She flipped around and Loki did the same; she pressed her back to his. Her sword swung out to strike another Hydra operative. Even back to back, even knowing that this was his design, that had caused at least part of the current situation, she could imagine the tightening of his jaw as he concentrated, and for a minute it was as if nothing had changed. They fought together. She knew the contours of his body, the way he moved in battle, as well as her own and the reverse was also true. They made complicated fight moves look easy and fluid as she ducked under his arm, striking with her sword, and he threw magic while twisting this way and that. He was reed bending and she was wind that blew around it.

Then she noticed they were moving further from the device that held the cube. Panic rising, she called out,

“Loki, now!”

She had no idea what he would do, but she knew to stay close to his side.

Suddenly the Jotunn’s casket appeared in his hands and with a flash of light he sent its immense power out at the Hydra agents advancing on them. Even in this moment as she was aware of how the men they had been fighting suddenly froze in mid-motion, her eyes remained on Loki.

His skin was no longer the pale, smooth surface she had pressed her lips to so many times, but a muted blue with the markings of the Jotunn etched all over like a language. The Hydra agents briefly forgotten she stepped closer to him.

“ _Loki_ ,” she breathed, feeling very much as though all the air had been stolen from her chest.

His eyes — fiercely red — met hers and even the sight of fading blue around his mouth could not hide the cruel twist of his lips just before he charged past her. She knew where he gone before she could fully turn to go after him.

He reached for where the cube resided. It opened under his magic and floated into his palm. The energy that had been travelling from cube to machine spiked and electrical flashes sparked and snapped in the air. The cube looked alive in Loki’s outstretched hand.

“Loki, you do not want to do this!”

“Don’t I?” He yelled over the roar of the wind, his hand glowing with the blue of the cube.

“What does it prove it? What do you gain!”

The currents of Jane’s machine and the cube surged and crackled around them. She could hear the weapons fire still going off in the background as the Hydra and SHIELD agents still fought. Something flew between them and Loki’s hand stuck out throwing magic. A body fell. Sif did not care. He had some something she noted. His magic was thick in the air and kept the fight away from them. The buzz of a weapon neared them and he shot his hand out as if throwing a barrier. A body fell, but Sif ignored it. Her gaze trained on Loki.

“I gain power.”

It wasn’t the words that gave her the cold feeling in her stomach — she had always known Loki was ambitious in a way quite different from Thor. Where Thor sought glory, Loki sought knowledge, and to him, knowledge was the most powerful of weapons. But this was wrong, everything was wrong.

How hard and empty he seemed!

What had happened to the Loki she knew?

“Asgard is no longer the place for me, Sif, and I cannot return to it.” He stepped forward and with another wave of his hand he carelessly dispensed of whoever it was that came near them. The blue of the Jotunn was just a pale hint in his cheeks and his eyes were a darker green than she had ever seen them; the red barely rimming them.

“I cannot let you do this, Loki!”

His laugh was cruel. She had not heard such a laugh from him — ever.

“Why? For the mortals! For Thor’s woman?”

Sif’s eyes prickled at his voice; could stand it no longer. She lunged at him, grunting as she passed through him and her eyes grew wide. A double. Never had he pulled this trick on her. Sif’s head snapped to the side where she felt him reappear.

“Is she that special?”

She growled again, and lunged. This time she caught him by collar of his armour and _shoved_. “They are my friends, Loki! I will not have them dead.”

He pulled out of her grip and she let her hands drop as three Hydra agents charged at them. For a second, they forgot and covered each other as they had always done. Sif flipped out her glaive, knocking out two, as Loki’s throwing knives sailed through the air. One hand still held the cube, still pulsing it’s bright blue, as he fought. Any other day Sif would have though it impressive.

In the awkward pause between camaraderie and quarrel, their eyes met. He stared at her. All the traces of blue were gone from his skin as was the red in his eyes, but he seemed more foreign to her now than ever before.

“Then fight me.” It was his wolf smile.

Swiftly, he conjured a thick mist covered around them and the machine.

She blinked through it, listening hard for his voice. “I will not.”

“Don’t you want this? Doesn’t your friend need this artifact? FIGHT ME,” he said. No, demanded.

She’d fought Loki before. Both in jest and when he well and truly annoyed her, but this was different. He wanted her to hurt him.

“ _No_ ,” called out Sif.

“But I’m monster, can’t you see, Lady Sif? I’m the fiend you would play-fight against when you were young. Don’t you want to kill me as you would then?” His lips curled meanly as he appeared in front of her, but there was something in his eyes that did not match them.

“No.” She walked up to him, her sword loose in her hand by her side.

“Fight me!” The cube pulsed like a threat in his hands. It cast blue shadows around his mist, cutting at it.

“NO!” She yelled once more. She was close enough now to touch him and around her the sounds of battle as SHIELD kept fighting the Hydra agents continued distantly. The mist grew thinner.

“Why won’t you,” he snapped, “I am a monster, am I not?” His voice sounded like the cracked edges of the Bifrost back on Asgard.

Sif reached up and curled her fingers around the wrist of the hand that held the cube but she made no move for it.

“I will not have you dead again. I would have you be a monster than have you dead, but I know you, Loki, and you are no monster.”

His face shuttered and she could almost feel the edges of his fingers on her face when abruptly the sounds of the fight reached Sif’s ears. The mist was gone.

There were voices. Jane. Darcy.

“SIF!” They yelled.

Still holding Loki’s wrist, Sif turned instinctively towards their voices.

She knew of bullets. Between Darcy’s preference for what they called ‘action movies’ on Midgard and having Barton teach her about Midgard’s weaponry, Sif knew of bullets — the mechanics of them. Hot metal shot through a gun, that when aimed properly, could kill. She hadn’t thought too much on them. She had faced far worse weapons than Midgard’s guns and bullets.

But they were weapons still, and when a weapon struck flesh it hurt.

Bullets, Sif was currently learning, also burned.

Her body crashed against Loki’s and she grimaced. His arm suddenly felt like a metal band around her waist, holding her to him. She gritted her teeth and in Loki’s palm the cube still pulsed. Magic sparked green around the blue.

Then Jane’s voice cut through the air again, panicked. “The connection! It’s destabilizing without the cube!”

Sif understood what that meant and she tried to tell Loki that he needed to put the cube back in before they pulled the power of the Bifrost down around them. Clenching her jaw, against the pain of her wound she turned her face up at him. All she saw was the white mask of his face and thought, _death_.

The cube pulsed brighter still and then everything flashed white.


	7. Chapter 7

Sif came to the feel pain and thin fingers on her wrist. Jane. She could hear the faint, muffled sounds of music. Darcy.

Groaning, she forced her eyes open. A bright light shone overhead and swiftly she closed them again.

“Sif?” Jane’s voice came from her left and Sif tilted her face to the woman. Darcy slept in a chair by door, legs twisted up under her in a very uncomfortable looking position.

“Hello, Jane.” Her mouth felt dry. Opening her eyes more slowly this time, she moved to sit up and hissed sharply as pain shot across her side.

“Hey, wait, don’t move so fast. Let me get the bed.” Jane moved from her seat and tucked an arm around Sif’s shoulder, helping her as the bed she laid in folded up under her. “You got shot and they had to dig the bullet out and stitch you up.”

“You make it sound like they had to sew my skin.” Sif joked until she saw the awkward look that passed Jane’s face. Immediately she reached to where she could feel the wrappings on her side and gingerly put her hand over the thin cloth material that covered her. She stared at the material as if she could hope to see through it and glanced up in surprise. “Truly?”

“Uh,” Jane shrugged, “We haven’t gotten quite there with the healing stones yet.”

Sif leaned back. “I did not bring any with me — old bad habit. Loki would alwa— Loki!” She straighten, an even move and ignoring the twinge in her side stared at Jane. “What did he do? I saw the cube in his hand and then...”

With a heavy breath, Jane dropped back down to her chair and twisted her fingers together. “I don’t know. Not really. When he took the cube out all the energy that was being transferred had no conduit anymore, so it was flying through the air. Then the mist happened and we couldn’t see anything for a few minutes. When it cleared and you got shot, it was like a flash bomb went off. A few Hydra agents and SHIELD guys near you just dropped and everyone else was thrown back and knocked out.”

Sif gave Jane a searching look, knowing she meant those men had died. Jane flushed under Sif’s gaze, but continued. “When we came to, it was pretty much chaos as the SHIELD agents started gathering up the Hydra agents. Me and Darcy got some headaches and then we saw you. You were out cold, bleeding and — Sif, the cube was in _your_ hand.”

At that Sif’s eyes went wide. “How is that possible?”

Jane licked her lips and said nothing.

She didn’t have to. Sif knew what she thought. Loki had left the cube with her.

They sat in silence for a beat longer before Jane said she was going to tell the SHIELD doctors that Sif was awake. After she left the room, Sif was left with only the sounds of Darcy’s music, lightly playing through a fallen earphone, her soft breathing and her circling thoughts.

 

—

 

It was an hour later they released Sif from the infirmary and she was allowed back to her room. Even without a healing stone she was healing much faster than any mortal would. Darcy and Jane followed her quietly, but she could see their questions reflecting loudly in their eyes.

Inside her room, she sighed at the sight of her armour and weapons, which were laid neatly on the bed. Fingering the one lone throwing knife, she picked it up and then shoved the rest over so she could sit.

Her side felt raw.

“What will happen now?” She needed to know.

Darcy let out an explosive breath and immediately went to prop the sword and glaive by the wall so she could drop on the bed next to Sif. Jane settled in the only other chair in the room.

“The machine is still functional, and since we didn’t lose the cube, it can still work like we planned it to.” She shared a look with Darcy that Sif did not bother to decipher and propped her legs up on the bed. “A few couplings blew and a couple things need to get rewired but it will work.”

“Yeah, except now Coulson wants to move us _again_. More secure location.” Darcy pursed her lips, trying on one of Sif’s armbands. It slid off.

“Where?” asked Sif.

Jane shook her head. “Hasn’t said.” They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Sif, why didn’t he?” Jane asked.

She turned the dagger over lightly in her hand. Its edge flashed. “I do not know.”

 

—

 

They left her room insisting she get some rest.

 _Immortal goddess or not, you got shot._

Sif nodded along, if only because her side did ache and while the doctors had given her something for the pain, Sif did not completely trust Midgard's healers. They _sewed_ her skin.

Instead she lay in bed and closed her eyes. Jane had not mentioned Thor, but Sif could see in her eyes she thought of him. Sif wondered if her eyes reflected her thoughts so transparently.

His dagger rested on her stomach as she idly played with its curved handle.

"You are well then?"

She did not move to look at him.

"Midgard's healers are adequate." She grinned up to the ceiling. "They had stitched me up apparently."

It was almost too easy to imagine how his jaw muscles tightened. Dropping her lashes, she snuck a look his way. Yes, too easy. He had always been squeamish.

"If that's what you consider adequate. I call it barbaric."

"I'm alive, am I not?"

Through her lashes she saw the shape of his body pull the chair closer to her bed and sit on it. He wore his Midgard garb. He said nothing for seconds and she knew him well enough to know he was considering his next move carefully.

His fingers brushed the edge of her tunic--the only thing she wore. She did not mean to stiffen, but her body betrayed her.

His fingers pulled back.

She thought she could hear the muscle in his throat work. She moved her gaze to the ceiling.

"Will you scar?"

Now, laughing lightly, she turned to him, setting the throwing knife on the small night table. His fingers were twined together on his lap, thumbs steepled.

"Would it be a problem if I did?"

Their eyes met and his lips curled, then twisted, a look of deep consideration on his face. She laughed again. It pulled her stiches. "Loki."

He leaned forward and touched his fingers to her arm. "You always forget to pack healing stones."

Not caring how he took the action she reached out, grasped his wrist, and pulled. His body moved with the motion and then there he was, sitting on her bed. His thigh pressed against her knee. "Bad habit," she said.

"Yes, it is."

She sat up, grimacing as the muscles and skin on her side strained and shifted, and watched as his hands stayed firmly on his thighs. "You never do."

"Some of us like to come prepared." And then with an easy turn of his palm, a healing stone appeared in his hand. Sif smiled.

"Do you mind?" She picked up the edge of her tunic and slid it up to where the wrappings was bleeding through slightly. "I would rather not deal with one more day of this. It's inconvenient."

Her tone was lightly, deliberately so, as Loki's eyes were hard as he started at the red spots of her blood. The hand that held the stone fisted.

Sif touched his hand and his eyes went to her. They were dark, but not like before. "Come now, it is only a little blood.” A smirk played on her lips and she gasped when his mouth nipped at hers quick as a serpent.

"I have not been squeamish at the sight of blood in a long time, now lay back." He propped up a pillow behind her and gently pushed at her shoulders to lay her against it.

"I know." She watched as he carefully picked and plucked at the dressing the SHIELD doctors had applied. His lips thinned at the the sight of the angry looking wound, with its thin black lines that held her skin together and the reddened, bruised skin surrounding it. It looked like someone had sewn shut a gaping red mouth on her skin. Sif sucked in air sharply at the look of it.

Loki paused in his ministrations and looked up at her. Green eyes filled with anger and worry that questioned her. She shook her head. He wasn't hurting her.

He worked silently. The stone was crushed to powder in his palm. He murmured something she did not catch and the bruising around the wound seemed to lessen. Next, he sprinkled the dust of the stone over the injury. One of his hands pressed on her stomach gently. She covered it with her own and let her head fall back as the healing took.

"There."

Tilting her chin down, she saw her unmarked skin and nodded with approval. "Not even a scar. You can rest easy now."

Loki glared at her and she felt her neck flush, knowing she had misjudged the situation. Knowing she should not have jested. But she did not know what to do or how to deal with him anymore. It felt like the first days of their relationship when they would constantly misread one another.

"If you thought--"

Sif curled her hand over his fingers that still rested on her stomach. "I didn't. I don't. It was just a jest, a poor one."

The line of his shoulders softened but not those of his face. She wanted to trace them.

His gaze shifted away. She pulled at his wrist. She wanted to wrap herself around him, wanted curl her thighs over his hips, hold herself close to him and tell him to talk to her, ask him why he had turned Jotunn blue, but Loki was Loki and he would not answer her until he decided to, regardless of how she asked.

"You should turn me away."

Sif's gaze snapped to his face. "Do not start acting a fool, even though you give a good impression of one lately.”

Her words came out harsher than she had intended, but she could not bring herself to regret them.

"And the truth spins out."

She rose to her knees and pushed his shoulders. "Do not start. Speak plainly to me."

He faced her, one leg curled under the other. "Then ask me."

Sif swallowed, surprised. "Very well then." She rolled her lips under her teeth, took a breath. "Loki. What did you do?"

"When?"

She tamped down her irritation at him. "This morning."

"Ah, then." He flicked at imaginary dirt on his jacket. His lips twitched and said, "I must admit, your Dr. Foster has more brains than I allowed, but she still thinks like a scientist."

“That is what she is.”

He inclined his head, “Indeed. However, the cube is more than mere energy. It is power and the wielder is all powerful with it.”

“Yes, I’m not a complete idiot. I remember the stories.”

Loki continued as if he didn’t hear her. Sif sat back. “Her machine was clever in design and in purpose and it would have worked.”

“Will,” she corrected. “She’s trying again soon.”

His eyes slid over to her as if surprised and then he pursed his lips. “Of course she is, but not all of us need a machine to wield the cube’s power.”

“Magic.”

He grinned, “Magic.”

The curve of his lips made her want to tug at his jacket and brush her lips against his, as it invariably did. Her lips brushed his seconds later. It was always easier when it was just them, she thought, as her teeth clicked against his. When everything else could be ignored for the slightest of seconds and they just were.

His fingers carded her hair back and his torso curved over hers. All tongue and teeth, the kiss was edged on messy and desperate; heady. It was an uncomfortable angle, as she still sat with her legs bent under her, and he half stood, half kneeled on her borrowed bed, but she did not care. Her hands reached around his neck and leaned her body into his. She wanted—she just wanted and missed, _him_.

She pulled away slowly, sucking lightly at his bottom lip, and rested back, never moving her gaze from his. He curved over her, fingers twirling in her hair, drifting by the dip of her chest.

“Loki, stay. Please.” She whispered. Her thumb traced the shell of his ear.

Eyes half-lidded, he bent to skim the line of her jaw with his teeth.

“Why?”

“Because,” she said, all the while thinking, _how dare he ask after being gone so long?_. “Thor will be here soon; he would want to see you.”

“Always Thor.” He moved away. Sif cursed herself, biting at her tongue. Careless. Careless, she thought, frustrated.

Knotting her fingers into the material of his jacket and tie, she shoved with him back into a sitting position and moved with him.

“No. Don’t you—” she broke off and held him to her. “If you are so dimwitted to believe I am asking because of Thor, then you have never known me. And if you believed I missed and mourned you then you must believe that Thor has as well, just as strongly. You’re his brother Loki and whatever quarrel you had with him, it has passed.”

“Possibly,” he shrugged and for some reason suddenly would not meet her eyes.

She scoffed, “Do not play martyr. I want you to stay. I want you to be here when Jane brings him back.”

“My Lady Sif.” The lines of his face softened and turned his eyes back to hers, lifting his hands to cup her face. She wanted to flush under his fierce gaze, something she had not done in ages. His lips pressed gently against hers. Sif’s breath escaped her.

A moment later, he stood. Picked up his coat from where he had folded it over the chair and draped it on his arm. Looked at her over his shoulder. “You know, you did not ask why I looked as I did when I used the Jotunn casket.”

Sif swallowed, knowing she hadn’t. She stood unable to handle how he looked down on her and met his gaze.

“It does not matter to me.”

“Maybe it should.” His face shuttered, made a consenting sound, and then with a brush of lips against her temple, he moved away from her leaving her feeling quite unbalanced. There was a flash of cold and wind before he dissolved into his own shadows. She lay back on the bed.

Her side didn’t hurt her anymore.

 

—

 

There was a knock on her door early the next morning. Sif was not woken by it for she was already up. Loki’s visit had weighed heavily on her mind all night and sleep had evaded her. She was lucky she did not need much sleep.

Slipping on loose trousers, she went to the door just as whoever was on the other side knocked again.

Barton stood on the other side. His jaw was bruised.

“Hey, morning.”

“Good morning. Can I help you?” asked Sif.

He grinned, but it wasn’t the flashy one he usually gave her when they sparred. It was tired and made him wince when he moved his jaw.

“Coulson is moving you guys. Right now. So if you could help me get your partners up, that would be great.” Barton explained.

Sif was slightly surprised they were being moved so quickly, but nodded anyway. “I’ll wake them up. I imagine Jane will like to oversee the lab.”

He nodded, “Selvig is already there, but yeah.” He moved away before pausing, and turned back to her. “How’s bullet wound?”

For a second Sif was confused and then realized that of course he still thought she was wounded. It was only natural. Even with her body’s naturally faster healing abilities, had Loki not come last night she would still be injured. Absently, she pressed her hand to where her wound had been. She didn’t feel the wound but the ghost of Loki’s fingers.

She lifted a corner of her mouth, “Better. We heal quickly.”

Barton nodded. “Lucky. You kicked ass yesterday.”

She grinned, “You as well.”

Barton moved down the hall and Sif fingered the material of her shirt over the smooth skin Loki helped heal last night. She straightened her back and went to wake Jane and Darcy.

 

—

 

The transport they ended up using to leave Clovis was called a plane and once it was loaded with Jane’s machine and the cube, now secure back in its metal case, they set off. Sif sat between Darcy and Erik as Jane sat across from them and kept looking to where her instruments were strapped down.

Darcy’s knee bounced impatiently against Sif’s thigh.

Erik kept pinching his nose.

They still had no clue where they were going.

The only comfort Sif found was in the feeling of the curved metal tucked in her boots.

 

—

 

They landed with a bounce and Darcy’s shoulder dug into Sif’s side. Immediately she apologized and Sif realized that Darcy, like Barton, still believed injured. Sif waved her off. Telling her about Loki’s visit now would just not be ideal.

Then as the back of the plane opened, Sif watched as Coulson and Barton directed new SHIELD agents to grab Jane’s equipment and load it up into new trucks. They followed them out as Jane called out her own directions over Coulson. The man, having learned how particular Jane could be, stepped back and allowed her to take lead.

Sif eyed their new destination. There were buildings in the distance as tall as some of the ones you could see on Asgard.

Next to her Darcy breathed, “Holy city that never sleeps, Batman.”

They were told they were being driven to a place called Stark Tower and Jane almost dropped her bag. Darcy fumbled tucking her iPod into her jacket and cursed. Erik’s jaw seemed unhinged.

Sif simply walked towards one of the black cars waiting for them as they caught up.

 

—

 

Stark Tower was just as tall as it professed to be by the picture on Darcy’s phone. They were led inside by a tall woman with red hair wearing a pair of uncomfortable looking shoes, though she seemed quick enough in them.

“Welcome, Dr. Foster,” she smiled, looking over their small group. “Miss Lewis, Mr. Selvig and Lady Sif, I’m told.”

They all nodded.

“Excellent. I’m Pepper Potts, CEO of Starks Industries and I am happy to welcome you to our complex. Dr. Foster, if you would like I can show you to your lab.”

Jane nodded quickly. “Yes, please, I need to make sure all the equipment arrived safely. It’s very sensitive.”

Pepper Potts — odd name, Sif thought privately — smiled kindly. “Of course, this way.” She waved her hand forward and Jane fell into stride bside her. Pepper turned to the rest of them. “If any of you would rather head to your rooms…”

She trailed off giving them the chance to opt out of going to the lab, Sif noted, but none of them took it.

Following Pepper and Jane, Sif took in the halls of Stark Tower. Much like SHIELD’s base, it was metal and silver with cool lights tracking their way. Here, however, they didn’t need badges. She already liked it better.

When they reached Jane’s new lab, there were already SHIELD agents unpacking as well as Coulson and Barton, who stood next to a new man dressed in a rumpled suit. He was examining Jane’s machine, his eyes bright with curiosity.

Jane practically jumped at him.

“Hey! Be careful with that. It’s delicate!” She hastened to put herself between the man and her machine, moving across the room with a speed Sif had not known she possessed.

The man’s black brows raised. “Sorry, just looking. Tony Stark.” He stuck out his hand and Jane’s eyes grew wide. Darcy’s quiet _shut the front door_ was what hinted to Sif that that this Tony Stark was someone of some of importance.

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Foster.”

“Doctor,” Jane corrected, taking his hand.

“ _Doctor_ Foster. I was just admiring your work. Ingenious design. Design it yourself?” He moved around the machine and poked his head over it again. Jane watched him with laser eye precision.

“Thank you… and yes, I did.”

“Cool,” his head popped back up and he gave a Jane a wink. “When are you planning to fire it up again? I’d like to be there.”

Jane quirked her brow at him, but her hands flitted over the machine like a mother worrying over her baby. “I have to do some checks to make sure everything is still fine, but a day or so.”

Tony turned to Pepper. “Can we stay ’til then?” He sounded like a five year old asking his mother permission and Sif was almost sure the man batted his lashes.

Pepper rolled her eyes at his antics, but pulled out a small black device and clicked through it for a couple seconds. She glanced between at Tony, Jane, the machine, Stark again and sighed. “Yes, we can stay.”

Tony grinned wide, making Pepper shake her head, and called someone for coffee. “Perfect! Now, Dr. Foster, tell me how you managed to compensate for the energy distribution for nine? Nine conductors at an equal rate.”

Jane’s eyes shone with the delight of talking about her work with someone who shared the same curiosity as her and began a rapid fire explanation.

 

—

 

It was over lunch in a large conference room, they were properly filled in on what was occurring. Coulson stood at the end of the table, pointedly not eating as the rest of them did. Darcy had wondered out loud when they could get some food in the lab and the next thing they knew Tony Stark was calling up his personal cook to the kitchen and taking orders. Sif quietly asked Darcy if this Tony Stark was some kind of royalty and Darcy had whispered back, _worse, he’s a celebrity superhero_. Sif was left to draw her own conclusions, but could not deny that he had an excellent personal cook. The meal looked amazing. Volstagg would have wept with joy.

The main objectives, they were told, were:

Open the Bifrost, get Thor back, stop Hydra.

Coulson had made a lot of other points, but those were the one that stuck for Sif, who had her own end design on things.

 

—

 

She thought Loki would visit now that they were settled in this new place or at the very least, he would send a trick to let her know he was near.

He stayed annoyingly silent.

 

—

 

Then, Jane tried again.

The machine was lugged up to the helipad on the top of Stark Tower and Sif helped set up again. Darcy stood by Jane with her fingers crossed and Erik laid a supportive hand on both their shoulders. Coulson had SHIELD agents surrounding them, triple the number of before, but Sif felt like they would not be needed. Hydra would not interrupt today — they had lost their whisperer, she suspected — while Stark and Pepper also stood near Jane, a red metal case by their feet.

As Sif helped secure the last conductor she threw her head back and called to Heimdall.

Jane inserted the cube into the device and the machine hummed once again. The blue energy from the cube poured out like bfore from the device and sent its power racing through the machine. It sparked and pulsed, like lightning trapped inside a thundercloud. Apt, Sif mused, standing back and watching the energy rebuild around them.

But the wind didn’t come in a fierce rush today and built steady and strong. It took a few minutes but soon the conductors seemed to vibrate and the air grew heavy with the power that started traveling between them.

Her eyes slid round the area; everyone stood tense. Coulson’s agents had their weapons at the ready, and she thought she glimpsed a flash of green and shadow that faded into blue.

The ground under her feet began rumbling as if the building quaked but Sif grinned. She thought to the last time the ground shook like this under her feet and she inhaled the smell of sweet and burning air.

Jane’s voice called out but it was lost in the heavy current of energy and wind. Then a familiar burst of light and colour filled the area.

Thor flashed into existence in front of them and before the energy stream had fully closed Jane was already in his arms.


	8. Chapter 8

“You did it, Jane!” Thor’s booming voice was the first thing that was heard as the Bifrost closed behind him.

She had not realized how much she missed her friend until he stood in the fading impression of power the Bifrost left behind, grinning that idiotic grin of his down at Jane. Jane’s arms were wrapped around him and her grin matched his as Thor lowered his face to hers.

Darcy’s elbow nudged Sif in the ribs and Sif shrugged at the younger woman’s amused eyeroll. Stark whistled low behind them.

“He’s missed her.”

Sif hadn’t put much stock into Thor’s feelings when they had first returned to Asgard, too wrapped up in thinking it was odd that of all the women in the nine realms Thor had fallen for a mortal — too wrapped up in missing someone herself — but then she had come to Midgard and met the woman. Jane was just like Thor. They cared deeply and easily. And Sif had seen how much Jane had missed him as well.

It was right, she supposed was the best word, that they had found each other again. And she knew it was because neither had given up the faith they had in the other.

Yes, it was right. It felt right.

They separated, Jane cheeks were flushed and her toes hit the ground again. When they turned back to the group their smiles were bright and identical.

“Hello, all! Erik Selvig, Darcy! Agent Coulson!” He strode up to them and gave each big hugs, except Coulson who he merely shook hands enthusiastically with. Darcy chuckled and cuffed him on the shoulder as he set her back on her feet.

“Missed you too, big guy!”

And then Thor turned his beaming gaze to Sif.

“Lady Sif, I see you have fared well.” His grin, just like his tone, was insufferable and teasing. Sif fought the instinctive urge to smile. Rocking back on her heels, she made a show of hooking her thumbs in the loops of her trousers and lifted one shoulder to her ear.

“I’ve made do. They have this excellent drink called coffee.”

Thor’s laugh boomed and the next thing she knew, she too was wrapped in a hug.

She patted his shoulders when he set her down. Her tongue pressed to the back of her teeth as she tried to carefully control the next words she said to him in front of all these unfamiliar faces.

“We must talk, Thor,” said Sif, low, only for his ears.

Thor’s eyes lowered in subtle agreement. “Yes, we must.”

His turned his attention back to Coulson and Jane, but Sif suddenly felt lighter than she had in days.

 

—

 

Thor found her hours later after being pulled away by Coulson and Jane, both whom wanted to speak to him for what Sif suspected were _very_ different reasons. Part of her was still eager to know what Coulson’s interest was in Thor, which she thought to ask him about when they had a moment to themselves.

She was in the complex’s training area when he came upon her. She lowered her arms, brushing her thumbs over the staff of her glaive, pulling the blades back.

“You seem comfortable here, Sif,” Thor took in the room. He no longer wore his armour, not the full trappings of it at least, having removed off his cape and his arm coverings.

Suddenly she was grateful that she had changed back into her own leathers. Even as comfortable as Midgard’s clothing could be, she still felt too tall and out of place in them. With Thor she could never feel out place.

Flipping her braid over her shoulder, she wiped at the sweat gathering on her lip. “Jane was very welcoming.”

His smile warmed considerably. “Yes, she is, isn’t she?”

Sif nodded. “I’ve missed home.”

“Heimdall’s report of what happened to you — it was distressing to hear. For a second I believed he feared you suffered the same fate as Loki and then he saw you with Jane.” If he noticed her flinch at Loki’s name, Thor was kind enough not to mention it and walked on to the mat and lifted his hands.

Sif threw a simple punch he blocked expertly and blocked his in return. They moved in a circle for a few beats exchanging careful blows. It was as much to gauge how the other’s training was fairing as it was to get on familiar ground.

“I did not though,” said Sif, stepping back.

“Are you sure about that, my friend?”

Sif sighed. “So you know.”

“Heimdall caught a glimpse during Jane’s last attempt to open the Bifrost. His surprise almost showed.”

“A day for the records.”

“Sif,” said Thor. “What of my brother?”

She spread her palms wide before fisting them at her side. “I do not know. Something eats at him. He’s—I do not know, and he will not tell me.” Her thoughts flashed to that day in battle when he had conjured the Jotunn casket. She wished she had asked him about it the night he came to tend to her wound, but it had felt too important and she had not had the right words to keep him. Still didn’t feel she did. However.

“Thor, something happened to Loki when touched the Jotunn casket that day. As he used it he—he looked Jotunn. I thought it the magic of the chest at first, but when he— it wasn’t, was it?”

It was the crumpling of Thor’s face that stole away the last shred of doubt remaining in Sif’s thoughts. The way the shadows and lines of his face grew told her everything she had not asked.

“Sif, there is something that you need to know.” He took her hands gently, frowned as she pulled them back, but only nodded. “Let us sit.”

“I would stand.”

He nodded again and began speaking.

She stood stock still as she processed Thor’s words and felt as if her ribs were constricting in her chest as each passing word. Thor had always been a horrible liar, she knew just as well as she knew Loki was an excellent one, and so she knew everything he spoke of had to be truth. A truth she had suspected, if she was sincere, since she had seen the blue tint bloom and disappear from his skin.

As Thor finished, she wet her lips, feeling them chalk dry and asked the only question she had,

“How long has he known? Loki?”

Thor looked shamed. He almost did not have to answer her, his face too open. Unbidden and swift on the heels of the look in his wide and handsome eyes, she suddenly knew.

“Since Jotenheim,” Thor said, confirming what she had known.

Sif’s fingers brushed by her lips, still feeling them dry and chapped; her jaw quivered. “I knew—I knew something was affecting him. But I just thought…”

Thor touched her shoulder and she blew out a breath. She didn’t have to say anything. Thor already knew what she was thinking because it had probably been the same thought plaguing him too. It was why they were such good friends; their thoughts tended to sync more than clash especially when it came to Loki and his tricks, they sometimes — shamefully — shared the same thoughts. Because as much as they loved Loki, he had always been a mystery to them. The way his mind worked was so different than theirs. In their youth they had teased him for this, then as they grew came to appreciate his manner, but they never fully understood him.

She had always known that a thin river of jealousy ran through Loki in when it came to Thor. Sometimes it would swell because she would tend to agree with his brother or the Warriors Three and would jest about how different he was to his brother.

She wondered how much of had hurt him. Children, so often unthinkingly cruel.

Raising her eyes to Thor, a notion passed through her mind. It wasn’t one she was proud and made feel uneasy and suspicious, of but she needed to know. “How long have _you_ known?”

“My mother told me recently. A few days before you came to Earth.” He paused, gauging her reaction. “You cannot think I would have said such things about the Jotunn had I known the truth.”

She thought back on how close mother and son had seemed in those last few days. The shadows in Thor’s eyes when she spoke of his brother, and nodded.

“No. I mean, yes, I know. I just.” She frowned at him, “I’m sorry, Thor, you know I do not think you so cruel and obtuse.”

Thor smiled sadly and nudged her shoulder with his. “Not always.”

She nudged back, “Not ever.”

He wandered to the hanging bag in the corner of the room and tapped it with his fist. It shook. “Loki… he was so angry when we fought on the Bifrost. I did not understand. Now that I do, I know I could not have fixed it, and I do not know how to make things right.”

Sif leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling, musing briefly on the sky beyond it. She could return home now that the Bifrost was stitched back together. With a sigh, she joined Thor where he stood and laid a hand on his arm.

“I do not know either, but somehow we will.”

“Since when are you an optimist, Lady Sif?” Thor laughed. It sounded sad and forced. So very unlike the Thor she knew.

Sif stuck her tongue out at him. “Since apparently you’ve become too maudlin to be.”

“Your words wound me.” He cheeked at her,  “Now, is this a fighting area? It has been too long since we’ve sparred.”

For a second, Sif blinked at Thor and how his demeanour had shifted so quickly, but then again, it was _Thor_. His moods were no less mercurial as his brother’s, they just centred on a different axis.

It was good to have Thor back.

“As they should, and yes. It has been too long. I fear you may have grown complacent without me to beat you every day.” Sif stepped back towards the mat.

His eyes narrowed, but there was no offence in them. “We shall see.”

A fist whipped out and Sif dodged.

It seemed that good spar was just what they both needed.

 

—

 

“I’ll show Járnsaxa, you horse!” Sif was in the middle of tackling Thor to the ground when the alarms of the building sounded. Thor turned, surprised at the sound, while as he was attempting to dislodge Sif. The action affected both their balance and they toppled down to the mat. Even as Sif cursed, eyes narrowed at Thor, she was rubbing at her neck and already levering herself up, same as Thor. Their eyes met.

“Jane.”

“The cube.”

Sif reached for her glaive and discarded sword. Already moving towards the lab where Jane most likely was, Thor called Mjölnir to him. The hammer’s handle appeared in his hand. They rushed through the halls.

As they reached the lab, a blast shook the building, and Jane’s voice rang out over the explosion.

“Thor! Sif!”

Jane ducked behind a large metal table with Darcy next to her, clutching at her arm, and Erik right behind them pulling them down. Tony Stark was yelling something to someone named Jarvis about Pepper and a case.

“Jane!” Thor jumped over the overturned chairs and equipment and pulled her to him. “Are you well? What’s happended?”

Nodding sharply, Jane rested a hand over Thor’s. “Yes, yes, we were just doing some quick tests on the cube to see how it’s energy was handling opening the bridge when the alarms started going off and—”

Jane’s words were cut off as the north wall was blown apart. The force of it drove them all down to the floor and Sif felt the glass and mortar on her back as she fell into the table in front of her. Its sharp edge caught her hip. Her hands curled on the table and she shoved it away, turning around. The blades of her glaive were out instantly.

Her stomach suddenly coiled into a tight ball of nerves. The feel of battle stretched over her shoulders.

Hydra agents appeared in the new hole in the side of the building on black ropes and she felt more than saw Thor kick over one of the large tables and told Jane and Darcy to stay behind it. Pepper’s heels could be heard clicking at top speed as she half ran, half slid into the room, deftly tossing a red case to Tony. There were SHIELD agents barreling in behind her and Pepper ducked and jumped as a round of gun fire broke a piece of wall over her head.

“Thor! They are after the cube again!” Sif pushed her way into the melee and flipped a Hydra agent over her shoulder as she moved to where the cube stood vulnerable, too near the gap in the building’s side. Bits of ceiling above tumbled down and glass shattered around her.

She felt the ripple in the air as Thor swung his hammer around and whoever he struck fell.

“Hey, watch where you point that thing!” Stark’s voice rang out and Sif glanced over her shoulder in time to see the case Pepper had thrown at his feet was unfolding itself and rapidly covered his body in a red and gold armour.

The second he was fully covered him, he stuck his hand out and a beam of energy and light sparked from it, hitting a Hydra agent.

Sif was immediately grateful for the extra backup.

“You did not mention you were a sorcerer too, Tony Stark!” Thor said, his voice sounding, as usual too amused while in a fight.

“Inventor!”

As Stark and Thor continued their banter, Sif watched two figures swing into the building very different from the Hydra agents that continued flooding in. First there was a woman, with hair as green as the tight suit that covered her body from neck to the end of her black boots. After her followed a tall thin man with long dark hair, dressed in what looked to be a red suit. The man wore dark shades over his eyes and from the seath at his hip he drew out a long thin sword.

It was the woman that yelled out the order though, calling for the Hydra agents to secure the cube.

Sif stepped in front of her. "You will not touch it."

"We'll see about that." The woman laughed and lifted a gun to Sif's face.

Sif reacted by twirling her glaive at such a speed that only giving the other woman the chance to widen her eyes grow before Sif caught the woman's arm in the spin and forced her to drop her weapon. Sif the spun the staff of her glaive half into her body to aim it at the woman's throat, but the woman had recovered. She was quick. Quicker than Sif had expected and ash she flipped backwards, the heel of her boot catching Sif painfully in the chin.

She growled and charged forward as the woman unwound a whip from her waist and lashed out. Sif lifted her arm to block the blow and hissed when the leather snapped and coiled around her forearm. It was tight, but not enough to cut into her skin -- briefly she wished she had remembered her gauntlets. She yanked. On the other end of the whip the woman bared her teeth and as Sif hauled her close, she threw a thin dart at Sif with her free hand.

Sif weaved out of the way, slicing through the leather of the whip with one blade of her glaive, only to come up in front of another Hydra agent. She cursed as she blocked their throws and kicks. Annoyed, she gripped the staff of her glaive with two hands and held it in front of her as she aimed a kick. As the agent grabbed onto the staff, she smirked and lowered her body, twisting under their arms and used her momentum to throw the agent over her shoulder.

 _Close_ , she thought, even as the blades of her glaive folded in and she pulled her sword out.

Turning back to face the woman, she glimpsed the rest of lab in her quick spin. Thor was dealing with the influx of Hydra agents, while Stark in his metal armour tried to fight the man in the red suit. The man was extremely quick tough, and she saw as the man in the red suit smirked, blinked out of sight and came up behind Stark, driving a sword across the man’s shoulder. Metal clashed against metal.

Sif’s her eyes caught on the woman, moving closer towards the cube.

"Thor, the cube!" She warned, knowing neither of them was close enough to stop the woman.

And then just as the woman reached the cube, the air shimmered like a haze of heat and Loki appeared.

“So sorry, not yours,” he grinned.

One hand covered the cube and with a twist of his other wrist, he sent a flurry of daggers to the woman. She bent her body away, sending a barrage of bullets toward Loki. Sif heard herself call out a warning—one that he did not seem to need. With another flick of his wrist the bullets glowed green and fell like fat raindrops of metal onto the floor.

The woman cursed and charged forward only to be met with a new redhead, another woman, Sif had not noticed before. She had no time to think of it as she raised her sword to block an attack. As the two women began fighting, it seemed though that the second was on their side and for that Sif was grateful.

“Loki, you have come!” Thor exclaimed throughout this, his mouth pulled into a laughing smile as he knocked his attackers back.

“You seemed outnumbered.” Loki did not look back to Thor and instead moved his hand in a circle encasing the cube in a green sphere. He tossed it into the air and sent it back to where Sif knew Jane was still keeping cover.

She heard Jane and Darcy’s shout of surprise as she drove her sword into her current opponent. Her body moved like water through rocks and she swept her sword at another Hydra agent’s knee. When she spun and stood to face her newest challenger she was met with Loki’s eyes.

“I thought you did not want them to have it.” She moved aside, not even blinking as another of his throwing knives sailed through the air, right by her ear.

His smirk was as dangerous as ever. “It is better protected with them.”

And it took a moment, but then Sif understood he meant because if the cube was with Jane, there was no way she or Thor would let harm come to the woman or her companions. She wanted to be angry with him for everything he had put everyone through, and knew part of her was, but his reasoning was sound. He had always been the most brilliant tactician she knew. Not to mention Jane was probably relieved that the cube was in her hand and not in another’s.

Sif bared her teeth at Loki. “Clever.”

“Behind you.” He warned.

She twisted round, sword slashing.

The Hydra agent fell at her feet. Loki was at her back now but that was a reassurance. There was still no one she trusted more in a fight than him. They moved fluidly in a slow circle swiping and dodging attacks as they came at them. Loki’s fluid style was as effective as ever and she knew just when to shift her weight to accommodate him.

But the fight was not looking to end soon.

 

—

 

Stark’s voice rang out as he blasted at his own opponents. Shouting orders and warnings to SHIELD agents, Thor, someone named Natasha, and Sif saw the man with the long sword, who had earlier been fighting Stark, uncomfortably close to where Jane kept out of the fight, the glowing sphere in her hands. Pepper was crouching down with her and through the din of battle, Sif comprehended more than heard Tony’s order to Pepper to get Jane, Darcy, Erik and the sphere out of the lab.

They stood to make a break for for it, and then the man in red winked out of sight again, reappearing in front of the group. He whipped his glasses off and Sif raced to put herself between the man and the mortals— her friends. A second later, she watched as as a SHIELD agent, in an attempt to protect the group as well got in between the man's gaze and Pepper, turned to stone under the man's gaze.

Darcy's scream as the man then shattered the now stone agent cut through the air louder than any other sound in the room. Sif immediately snapped her head in Loki’s direction. He was already gone.

He reappeared as five Lokis surrounding the man in red.

Thor, too, was fighting his way to where the others were gathered, caught between the chaos of the lab and Loki with opponent. Jane was clutching the sphere to her and Pepper's eyes darted around looking for where Stark was.

"Tony! Get rid of the helicopters!"

"I'm a little busy, Pepper!" Sif heard Stark's reply.

Sif looked towards the gaping hole in the building where there were still ropes that hung from above, where beyond it two large black aircrafts kept near the building and she understood what Pepper meant. Those crafts -- helicopters -- were the Hydra agents’ way out.

Behind her she could see how Loki keeping the man in red busy, while Thor kept himself between any Hydra operative and Jane.

Mjöllnir. Sif grinned and sheathed her sword.

Using a half broken table as a launch pad, Sif bolted and leapt across the room. She landed near the woman with red hair, still fighting with the woman in green and as well as three other Hydra agents. There were less SHIELD agents in the room now, but there were also less Hydra agents. This battle was looking to be close one, but even so, it was this woman in green and the man in red that held the real power here. Every battalion has it’s leaders, after all.

Sif met the red headed woman's eyes and nodded breifly. The woman did a spin and duck, swiping her legs at the ankles of the woman in green sending her to the ground while Sif whipped out her glaive again. Her blades cut down the remaining Hydra agents within seconds, and she was already facing the red head and the one in green before they hit the ground.

The woman in green was cursing as she bent backwards to slice her legs up but Sif had long ago mastered the countermove. Dropping her staff to the ground, she grabbed at the other woman's leg and lifted it in the air, tossing her over towards the gap.

The red-headed woman executed a series of kicks and jabs that had the two remaining Hydra agents down, and grinned when she turned back to Sif.

"Natasha."

"Sif."

She then grabbed Sif by the arm as a round of bullets came towards them and they tumbled to the floor.

Natasha glanced over her shoulder, "We need to take those choppers out."

"Stark and Thor could but they will not leave Jane and Pepper."

“Love.” Natasha rolled her eyes.

Sif smirked. "I have an idea though."

Natasha raised her brows but then smiled as Sif quickly explained her plan.

 

—

 

Natasha leapt back into the fray barely a second before Sif, but she headed left whereas Sif headed right. A couple of the Hydra agents that remained came into her path but she dispatched them quickly. She moved towards the brothers. Loki’s doubles no longer surrounded him and she could see how Thor’s eyes darting to Jane every few seconds.

They needed to get them out but the exit was blocked by the ongoing fight.

“Loki!” She called out and held her glaive as a lance at her shoulder. Loki used a distraction to buy him the second he needed to catch her weapon as she threw it to him. He knew the tricks of her weapon almost as well as she did and the blades flicked out just in time to clash with the blade of his opponent’s sword. He raised his other hand and threw another spell at the man’s eyes.

Sif unsheathed her sword and moved to Thor.

“Thor, you and Stark must take care of those machines! Let us worry about the rest."

“What of Jane?” Thor said, swinging his hammer in a wide circle.

“I will take care of her.” Sif threw a fist into an oncoming Hydra agent, glancing over her shoulder. Thor nodded and then hastened towards the hole in the building, calling for Stark to help him.

Sif heard more than saw as Stark blasted a weapon after a Hydra agent and followed Thor. He threw his light blasts at the ropes that still hung in the opening, cutting and burning them, sending them towards the spinning blades of the helicopters.

A new voice rang out, “Gorgon, stop fucking around and get the cube!”

The woman in green, Sif realized. Her voice was cut off by Natasha who delivered a sharp kick to the woman’s side.

Across from her, the man fighting Loki — Gorgon — did something with his sword too fast for Sif’s eyes but she heard Loki’s grunt as the blade cut through skin and he fell back. Gorgon pulled his sword away, the red of Loki’s blood a thin drip on the silvery tip was he flicked away in a sharp move, and turned to Sif. But Sif was not looking at him, not really. Her eyes flitted over his shoulder to where Loki stood. Hand pressed against his shoulder, gaze locked on Sif, they shared a subtle look.

Sif stepped back closer to where Jane stood with her cube in Loki’s sphere. “Jane, in about ten second I’m going to need you all to run to the door! Get ready to move!”

Several voices shouted in acknowledgement.

In the background, Sif could hear Thor and Stark dealing with the helicopters, heard as one broke apart and Thor called Mjölnir to him. She could hear as Natasha continued fighting the woman in green.

But what mattered was what she saw. In front of her, the man in red, the Gorgon, smiled cruelly at her and held his sword in at his side, ready in a fighters stance. She lifted her own sword and it was a count off between warriors.

Three. Her leg shifted.

Two. Her wrist tensed.

She rushed forward, shouting, “Loki!” _One_. “Jane, run!”

The mist surrounded her.

Gorgon flinched at the new change of enviorment and it was the opening Sif needed. Her sword cut through his shoulder, just like he had cut through Loki. He parried, the long thin blade of his sword driving hers away. She pushed forward and hissed as his sword cut too close to her. She swung again and blocked. They exchanged blows, the steel of their swords echoing in Loki’s mist, neither gaining the upper hand. It was almost as if he sensed where she thought to strike next, but she was quick and held her own. Moments later, she could see him growing confused.

She felt the mist fading and knew she had to take him down before it left completely and she lost her adverting, and before they were once more surrounded by the battle in the lab.

Lifting her sword, she moved to strike when he winked out of her vision. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, she tensed and spun. To face a cloaked back.

Loki.

 _Fool_ , she thought as the edge of Gorgon’s sword scraped along his armour and he tumbled to the side, sending a burst of his knives spiraling towards the man. Gorgon blinked out of her sight again, but she saw that one of Loki’s daggers had struck him.

She slipped in front of Loki and shoved him behind her. She looked round but the man had not reappeared.

“You idiot, you’ve already been run through with a sword once.” Sif snarled, “And you should be helping Thor and Jane.”

“Is that how you thank me for saving your life?”

“It’s how I say you are a constant source of aggravation to me.”

“You have missed me.”

Her smirk almost warmed. “Like a sore.”

He laughed and then she felt his fingers at her wrist, his voice low in her ear. “He can read your mind.”

 _Nine hells,_ Sif cursed silently and readied her sword again. “Perfect. Then you’re going to just have to think louder than I do. Call your mist off.”

His hand pressed against her side. The mist melted. Loki moved away.

As the lab reappeared, so did her rival. His sword flashed in the lights and Sif tightened the grip on hers. It would have been another countdown except Sif was tired of games. She attacked.

His sword flew up in a defensive stance and she smiled. It was an old move. Everything about her stance spoke to a left-sided strike, and she concentrated on thinking about a left-sided hit. And so he defended his left. At the last second, she bent her body to the right, her hair floated in front of her face. The edge of her sword caught him in the ribs.

He fell. Blood pooled at his side.

Panting, she lowered her sword.

It was an old move—trick, really.

 

—

 

Around her, the signs of a battle hard won showed.

 

—

 

Stark stood with the mask of his armour pulled back, his red and gold armour nicked and dirty. The red-headed woman, Natasha, stood bruised but and disheveled next to him. The remaining SHIELD agents still standing were rounding up the few Hydra agents that lingered. The woman in green seemed to have disappeared.

SIf heard Thor call out to her and tipped her head to where he stood, bloodied and dusty, in the ruins of the lab. He smiled. Then he called out another name.

Loki.

He stood just behind her, a few injuries on him that she could discern, but his face was pale; paler than normal.

“I believe you can all handle it from here.” He took a step back, back towards his shadows, but Sif caught his wrist quickly.

“Stay, please.”

“It is not the place for me.”

Thor approached them.

“You helped us fight these people off—twice; of course this is the place for you.” Sif tightened her fingers, fearing he would pull away and leave her, again.

His eyes slid towards Thor for a beat. “Maybe once.”

“Always, Loki.” Sif did not dare take her eyes from him. She hadn’t looked well enough once before and lost him; she was not one to make the same mistake twice.

The angles of his face shifted and he pressed his fingers to a bleeding cut on her collarbone. It warmed and healed under his touch.

“But not today.” He turned his gaze to his brother and she could not determine what passed between them before Loki pulled his wrist away. Her fingers felt the cool brush of his armour and then just air.

It came upon her suddenly how tired she felt. Tired and angry and confused and— she didn’t even bother processing the thought that went through her mind. It was action and instinct, and with a twist of her mouth she grasped him by the collar of his armour before he moved too far from her, pulling him down to her lips.

It could not be called a kiss. Her teeth bumped against his closed mouth and saw his widened in surprise. Her blunt nails scraped at the skin exposed at his neck. She felt the muscles there tense.

She pushed him away a moment later. “If you stay away for longer than a day I will come for you and you will not like it. That is a promise.”

Eyes never leaving hers, Loki faded.

Sif turned to Thor.

“Your brother is a nuisance.”

“Yes, he is.” He said softly, staring at the place where Loki had disappeared. He turned to her and after a moment of consideration that told her that they would be speaking later about what he just witnessed between her and Loki his face went as bright as the sun and he pulled her under his shoulder. “But look at this battle we have won!”

Sif didn’t let go of tension the battle that pressed against her, but she sagged under Thor’s arm. Yes, they had won. Her mind turned to Loki.

Not everyone accepted the victory easily.


	9. Chapter 9

“The woman after the cube, Madam Hydra and the man with her, Gorgon. They have been mere steps behind us in our attempts to keep the cube’s location secure,” Fury explained. He paused, took stock of the room. “That is until this last week and a half. We think that last week when you first attempted to open your wormhole, Dr. Foster, they picked up on how to read the cube’s energy when it’s activated. This week when we opened it again, we gave them a big neon sign to where we were.”

“But before that,” Jane spoke up, carefully meeting Thor’s eyes, and then pushed forward. “You thought it was Thor’s brother giving them intel.”

Fury leveled his gaze on Thor and Sif and motioned to Coulson. “I think it's important that you two see this." He pressed a button on the table and suddenly a hologram appeared over the table and various images started playing. Images of buildings and men, wearing similar outfits to those of the Hydra agents, fighting what looked like nothing more than a shadow. It seeped in and out of the rooms as the picture switched and the agents fell.

Sif did not have guess why they were showing this to her and Thor. The way the shadow moved was too familiar. Then as one of the buildings seemed to catch fire, the picture blacked out and the floating hologram was gone.

"These images are from of suspected Hydra bases that SHIELD's had under surveillance and in the last four days, they have all systematically dismantled after our mysterious shadow here appears." Fury sounded both happy and annoyed at these developments. "Now, it takes someone with a lot of skill and training to do something like this and even more, someone with extraordinary skills to pull it off without letting a camera catch their image, save a blurry shadow. As of right now, I do not know of or employ anyone who could pull such a feat, except…”

"Loki, my brother," Thor supplied, the word 'brother' a firm statement.

Coulson brought up the image again, “You’re sure, then?”

Sif shifted and met Thor's subtle glance.

"We are."

“But didn’t you guys just say you thought Loki was your snitch?” Darcy pointed out, hands cupped around a steaming mug of hot chocolate. “He’s kinda kicking ass for you there.”

Fury seemed to consider this and nodded. “That does now seem to be case now. Do you happen to know why he's taking out the people we believe he was working with?"

Sif had a thought but it was one best kept to herself, for Loki's sake. She offered another.

"It's very possible they weren't working as closely as you thought. Loki has never been one to make friends easy."

Next to her Thor guffawed, clapping her shoulder. "It is true, what the Lady Sif says. My brother can be very difficult to get along with. It is his charm."

Fury did not look pleased.

"Look, Thor, your brother or not he's affecting SHIELD procedure. He attempted to steal the cube in New Mexico."

"But he didn’t.” Sif cut in firmly.

Fury continued as if she hadn't spoken, "Bottom line: he's a wild card and we don't know if we can trust him."

Thor sighed. "My brother can be difficult to understand but he always has a reason for everything he does."

Silently Sif agreed with Thor, even if she knew all too well that Loki's reasoning could sometimes be too complicated for anyone but _Loki_ to understand. She had no doubt that Loki _had_ been feeding Hydra the information about the cube's whereabouts, but she didn't believe that he would have ever given the cube to them. Their encounter in Colvis had told her that much, as well as what had what happened in the lab before.

She had wondered on that at first, for it seemed he was more interested in the cube than opening the Biforst, and as much as she would like to think she helped in changing his mind, she knew Loki. Changing his mind was a near impossible task and there had been a deep determination in his eyes. He had wanted the cube but left it. He had stopped the Hydra agents as well, twice now. Something had changed for him and she did not know what it had been.

Fury's voice reverberated through the room.

"Be that as it may, he's acting like a man with a mission and we need to know what that is. Do you think you can find him and talk to him?"

Thor rubbed at his beard, "You do not know my brother, Commander Fury. He is a master of sorcery. Finding him when he does not want to be found is a near impossible task."

“Hmm,” Fury weighed Thor’s words and gave a nod of acquiescence. “Then I’d say you try for the impossible. You might want to tell him that we’d like to have a little talk with him.”

At Fury’s words, Sif caught a flash of green on the monitors behind Fury and had to smother the smile that wanted to creep up on her lips. Her glance at Thor told her he had noticed the same flash.

“I’m sure my brother would be most interested in what you have to say.” Thor said, more diplomatically than Sif had thought him capable of.

Fury left the room with Coulson trailing him. Thor leaned back on his chair, taking one of Jane’s hands in his and held it to him.

“What now?” Jane asked.

Stark, who had been sitting in his own corner, spoke up. “Well, I say victory party.”

“I vote party too.” Darcy grinned, wagging a finger towards Stark. “I like you, dude.”

“All the girls do.”

Every woman in the room rolled their eyes and Pepper smacked him on the shoulder.

“Actually, Dr. Foster--”

“Jane, please.”

Pepper smiled. “Okay, Jane. You have some paperwork to fill out.”

“Paperwork?”

“It seems your research merits a Stark grant,” Pepper pushed away from the table, still smiling, and motioned Jane towards the door. “And Darcy, I think we can work something out for you and your work-study credits. Political science, right?”

Darcy nodded, “Yeah.”

Pepper shared a secretive and smug look with Stark. “Come with me, I think I have something for you too.”

Jane and Darcy glanced at each other and stood to follow Pepper out. Jane stopped and bent, dropping a soft kiss on Thor’s lips, flushing when he pulled her closer and whispered something to her that had her nodding. She brushed her hand over his shoulder in a comforting manner and joined Pepper and Darcy who were already by the door.

Thor watched her go and then he leaned back in his chair again. He turned to Stark.

Stark was already moving away. “See you two later. Gotta make sure Pepper doesn’t give away Dummy away to Jane.”

As the door closed behind him, Loki stepped from out of the corner of the room behind the shade of a plant. He had changed from his armour to simpler attire. His coat played with the shadows on his neck.

“These people you have allied yourself, dear brother, seem very demanding.” Loki tugged at the cuffs on his arm.

Thor did not rise to the bait and motioned to where the hologram stood. “Why did you do that?”

Loki pursed his lips slightly before settling them in a thin line. “They outlived their usefulness.”

“Yet first you led them to Jane.”

Teeth flashed. “I did say I’d visit - but that was in fact a happy coincidence, if you will.”

Sif did not know why these words had Thor stiffening or why his hands clenched into fists, but she found herself ready to move at any moment for it looked like the brothers were coming close to blows.

Thor’s fists unclenched slowly. “Do not jest. What did you want with the cube, Loki?”

“It no longer matters.”

Lie, thought Sif. It seemed that Thor had the same thought.

“You are lying.”

“You’ve gotten better at noticing, but as it is, my plans for the cube have been… reconsidered.”

“Loki.”

In the same impatient tone, Loki replied. “Thor.”

And Sif could not stand it anymore. “I am ready to beat both of you. Thor, leave the room.” Stepping between brothers, she took Loki’s arm.

Thor frowned at her request. “Sif, I must to speak to him.”

Sif pressed her lips together, understanding Thor’s need to talk to his brother, but she also knew that would only keep baiting each other and nothing would be resolved.

She smiled softly at her old friend, “I know, but please. I...” She trailed off, teeth pressing at her lips. “I-I need to speak him too. Please, Thor.”

Thor’s looked between her and Loki. His eyes widened for a second and Sif knew that their postponed conversation about what had happened in the lab between her and Loki had just become more complicated. He looked between her and Loki and reluctantly nodded.

“Very well,” said Thor, looking at his brother one more time before stepping out.

Sif waited until the door closed after him. “Loki, please.”

“Please, please. It’s all you say to me as of late. What do want from me, Sif?”

If only she fully understood herself.

“First, I do not wish to speak here. Take us somewhere.”

He angled his head to the side, as if to consider her, and then nodded, offering his hand. She took it and felt the pull of his magic. The world blurred around them and then righted itself.

 

—

 

It was a near empty room with a view similar to that of Stark Tower from the window. The city of New York sparkled and shone below her.

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Your home?”

“You said you would not speak there. We are no longer there.” He stood like a wall of ice and damn him if he thought she would let him brush her off like he did Thor.

Sif sighed. “I want you…to explain to me why you would let us believe you had died. Why you’ve pulled away from us—me. Why there’s such anger in your eyes?” She stepped closer to him. “You look at your brother as if he was your enemy, you leave feigning you do not care, and yet you do not let harm come to him.”

“Or you,” he muttered so quietly Sif almost didn’t catch it. His next words were loud enough she felt that they were not only for her ears. “I have already explained myself. I’m am the monster in this tale.”

She curbed the urge to punch him. “You are the dimmest man in all the nine realms if you think I would believe that! You are Loki. Annoying, mischievous Loki. Who I love, clearly lacking all sense.”

His features opened then, letting glimpse at all that he hid, then shut off as fast at her words.

He closed his eyes and when they opened she saw only pain before steely coolness replaced it. “I am Jotunn, Sif. I am what you are meant to fear.”

Glancing out the window the words stuck in her throat at the guilt she remembered when he told her. She thought of the suspicions she did not let herself believe after she saw Loki handle the Jotunn’s casket, and now at the vulnerability she saw etched Loki’s face, much like the blue marking had been.

He looked at her and nodded. “I see my words are not a surprise.”

Sif swallowed. “Thor told me not hours ago.”

“I see.” He raised his hand and tugged at the strap of her armour. She knew he expected her to flinch. “Now you know: I am nothing but a nightmare for Asgard. Seems all the court was right after all.”

His words were callous, but Sif did not care for them, too focused on what his eyes told her.

She shook her head, letting a smile tug at her lips. “You are Loki. If you were not a nightmare for Asgard then you would not be you.”

“Do not make light of this.”

“I am making light of nothing.” She took his hand. “You are Loki. Nothing changes that.”

The muscles in Loki’s neck worked as he listened to her words and then he shrugged off her hold on his hands.  “It changed everything! I am not Thor’s brother or your Loki. I am a trophy and a pet. Nothing but a prize for the house of Odin.”

Anger bubbled over in Sif and she stalked forward, laying her hands flat on his chest and _shoved_. “For being so clever you are also incurably stupid. If you ever say something like that again I will send you to Hel herself.” Her vision blurred with tears she would not let fall. “You are no pet or prize to me and if you believe it so then you should step back in your shadows!”

Loki’s eyes widened. It reminded her of the first time she had kissed him in the gardens. How surprised he had seemed and how embarrassed she had felt for that one, hot second before he kissed her back.

Again, they were at a similar impasse — forever pushing at each other — except she was not embarrassed today.

How could he think her so shallow? Did he not understand how much she cared for him?

Truth changed a lot of things, she was sure, and learning this had shifted something inside her. Yet it had been a kind of understanding she felt when Thor spoke to her eariler. An awareness that stabbed her in her gut and chest once comprehension took hold, and now it hit just as hard all over again.

She loved Loki still.

 

—

 

“My lady Sif,” he breathed as his fingers brushing the bottom of her chin. “Sometimes I forget how dangerous you can be.”

She rolled her eyes, “Your flattery overwhelms me.”

“What flattery?” His cheeks folded up into a smile and for a second there was relief.

Her palms flat against his jaw, Sif sighed. “I’ve come to learn the subtleties of your words and their meanings.”

“So far you’re the only one,” he lowered his face to her and held it there for a second. His kiss was light and his fingers trembled at her cheek. Her hands drifted to his shoulder, his neck, his hair. Still Loki to her.

She thought to ask the one question that had been burning at her since she found he lived, but she knew the answer already. Had known from the second she saw him in the lab, catching the dagger she threw at him. She pulled away.

“You will not return to Asgard,” she said.

Loki for once did not look away when she mentioned their home. “But you will.”

“It is home.”

“Not for all of us, not anymore.”

Mindful, she nodded. “Your mother misses you. She would be overjoyed at your return.”

He took a step back. “Knowledge that I live will have to be enough.”

Sif circled the room, staring out at the city beyond the window. “It was not enough for me.”

She could hear his stance shifting, his boots scraping against the floor. “No?”

“No.” Turning, she was not surprised to find him so close.

Her mouth lifted to his, opened and she darted her tongue out to trace his lips. It was like a gasp of air when he parted his lips and she closed her teeth over the bottom one. Their chests pressed against each other and she suddenly understood why she had asked him to move them away from Stark Tower. She raised her arms to pull at his coat, pushing it over his shoulders and she tilted her head back. Her teeth dragging at his lip, turning it out, and they locked eyes.

His coat fluttered to the floor behind him.

Loki’s hand clasped over her leathers and she tugged at his top. It was years of practice that had them expertly shedding clothes in seconds and she swallowed as he looked up at her from where he was pulling her boots off. The dagger she still kept in her left one made him grin.

“You always did steal my throwing weapons,” he said, teeth closing over her knee.

Sif gasped. “You always did leave them in my room.”

“True enough.” He leaned her against the window. Sif shuddered at the cool glass at her back just as much as she did because Loki was licking and kissing a hot, wet trail up her thigh.

And when his lips licked a thick strip against her slit, she fisted her hands in his hair. The curve of his mouth pressed against her thigh. She felt her own lips begin to curve and then fall open in a sharp gasp as his teeth pressed against her and his tongue worked its way inside her. His fingers traced meaningless shapes on the back of her thighs and she clenched. His lips traced her folds and she felt her skin heat up.

Her hands pulled at him. One cupping his jaw, that she felt still working against her, the muscles in her stomach clenching; her other hand curved over the sharpness of his shoulder blade and she curled her hands.

“Up, come up,” breathed Sif.

Loki rose from his stance, the line of his nose casting shadows on her skin. His eyes were blown wide and dark. She thought could see herself mirrored in them.

He reached behind her. Fingers trailed up her scalp and tugged at the cord she wound around her hair. It tumbled from its tight hold and fell across her shoulders; his fingers carded through it, as they always did.

Resting her forehead against his, Sif moved arms to curl under his and spread her fingers over his back. His lips brushed the corner of hers and his hands followed the shape of her hips.

“I mourned you,” she whispered. Her arms clutched at him tighter. She hooked her legs around him. “I mourned you.”

One of his arms encircled her waist and raised her up the few inches of difference that laid between them. The outline of their profiles paralleled each other. Her legs caged him by the waist and the glass warm from the heat of her body held her. He gripped her left thigh hooking it higher on his waist. She shifted her hold on him; their hips aligned. She lowered herself on him and grinned against his cheek.

Long fingers stroked he curve of her breast, his thumb circling the goosebumps that rose on her nipple. She pushed her hips against the surge of his. He bent his neck low, lips drawing a path across her collarbone, down the dip of her chest and his hand moved lower, stroking the skin of her abdomen.

A quiver of heat shot up her spine. Her teeth traced the shell of his ear.

She had mourned him. She had missed him.

It hit her every time she saw him since his first appearance on Midgard and now he surrounded her. The planes of his body, the way the skin of his arms pulled tight over the surprising amount of muscle his wiry limbs held, his fingers splayed across her back and side. She traced the line of his shoulder as far as she could and hitched her legs higher on his hips. They followed the push and pull of the other and Sif arched under his hands. He buried his face in her neck and she could feel the words he shaped with his mouth against her skin.

Warmth and tenderness for him flooded through her even as their pace was no longer steady. Fast, sharp jerks that had her clenching around him. She tugged at his hair, curling at the edges, and drew his face back to hers. His eyes were nearly black, only a thin sliver of sharp green reflecting back at her and Sif wondered if her eyes mirrored his.

Sif leaned closer him using her thighs, just as his arm pulled her to the line of his body. She was glad because her hands itched to touch his face. With her thumbs, she stroked the line of his chin and she touched her lips to his. His breath slid into her and she licked at him.

Her thighs trembled and she bore down on him. Everywhere he touched her skin felt too thin.

She hissed his name as her lips and teeth clumsily grazed the corner of his mouth. Everything seemed to stretch then constrict insider her, then her body felt loosen around his. Loki thrust deeper into her. She focused on the smell of his skin, the spot where the muscles in his neck flowed into his shoulder, how his skin was slick under her hands.

“Loki,” his name was thick on her tongue.

Hers was whisper against her throat.

Her back bowed at the sound of it and she felt the glass of the window hard against her back as his body pushed against her. Their weight fell combined on the glass. Sif turned her head to face him and was gifted to the sight of Loki, his breath clouding the window, undone. It was rare she saw him like this. There was a small amount of pride, and no small amount of affection, at knowing she was one of the few he ever let himself cede any ground to. His walls were down for this moment and Sif treasured it, like she had all the ones before.

She nudged her nose to his cheek. He turned his face slightly, forehead still pressed up against the glass. His smile was soft, and one she thought of as secretly hers.

 

—

 

They collapsed on the floor, together, after. Sif slept.

When she woke an hour later, she watched him as he rested his head on his folded up coat. His eyelashes cast soft shadows on his cheeks that she wanted to kiss. She leaned forward and did so.

She straddled him, and told him to do something about the cold floor.

Even as one hand touched the floor, the other teased her and splayed on her stomach.

Sif lowered her torso to his and sighed.

The missing, the mourning, was done.

 

—

 

The floor was hard against her back. The lights of the city played with the shadows of the room and they cut sharp lines across his body. Sif propped herself up, elbow angled on the floor, her chin in hand.

Her other hand poked his side. “You are not asleep.”

One eye opened. “You stamina threatens to do me in.”

She grinned, “Cheek, but that is not what I was asking.”

“Oh?” Now he turned and propped himself up as well, facing her, their positions a mirror of the other.

It always touched at something inside her to see in the right lighting their skin, hair and eyes almost matched. With her free hand she stoked the line of his hip. His lashes fluttered.

She smiled briefly and wickedly, then frowned. “I need you to take me back to the Tower.”

His eyes, soft and hazy a second before, now sharpended. “I see.”

“Thor might not worry — not now that he knows — but the others will.”

“And you care?” His mouth flattened into a cruel line.

She twisted her lips and sat up. “They are my friends. I will not argue about this, Loki.”

He huffed, a rare display of annoyance from him, and he sat up as well. “I see.” He moved to stand and she leapt up after him.

“You are still more,” she said. “But I have not drawn the same lines you have. You say you will not go to Asgard, and I understand you feel you can’t. But it is still my home.” She sighed and bent to pick up her clothes. “For similar reasons I have to return to the Tower. You could too.”

She slipped her leathers on. Next to her Loki pulled on a pair of conjured trousers. A shirt followed and not for the first time Sif stood half naked in front of him, envious of his ease with magic.

“I will not.”

Shaking her head, she cupped his face and rose to kiss him. “I know.”

Loki blinked at her. “It is not a choice?”

His face warred with emotions that had Sif softening towards him. Choices. They always seemed to follow her when he was around, ever since she was a child. Sometimes she wondered if he understood how uncomplicated some choices were to make.

“No, not in your definition of the word,” she curled her lips.

“You mock me.”

Slipping on her vest she reached for her boots. “I’m telling you: take me back to the Tower. Stay if you please, and eat with us in the morning if you dare.”

His eyes widened with mild panic. Sif schooled her face.

“The mere idea of sharing a meal with those my brother calls ‘friends’ is more torturous to me than listening to Fandral sing.”

“He does have a terrible voice,” Sif agreed. “But, will you join us?”

He held out his hand to hers and pressed it to his lips. “We shall see.”


	10. Chapter 10

He did not meet them for breakfast. She had not thought he would.

That afternoon Darcy suggested to them that they should eat outside the building and Thor had enthusiastically agreed. They were in the middle of Jane and Darcy convincing Thor that there was no actual _king_ in Burger King, when he materialized at her side.

She slid him a look and his face stayed impossibly still until the others noticed his presence. Jane and Darcy’s faces went wide with shock while Thor grinned.

“Brother”

She felt him flinch but didn’t comment on it.

“Are you joining us for lunch?” Thor asked.

Loki’s hand slipped into the pockets of his coat. “I was hungry.”

“Excellent!”

Eventually Darcy convinced them to go with Chinese. Thor had some difficulties with the chopsticks. Loki seemed to be familiar with them as wel as menu, which had had Sif grinning behind her hand.

As they walked out, Thor asked Sif when she was planning to return home.

Loki left them after, fading into the crowd, not even waiting to hear Sif’s answer.

Thor quickly apologized as the significance of his words hit. Their conversation earlier that morning about her relationship with Loki had been surprising — to Sif most of all as Thor only seemed to pout over not having known about it or noticed the difference between his brother and his friend — but it was clear he had not thought about that when asking about her return to Asgard. Sif waved him off. Walking down the crowded streets of New York with Darcy’s arm tucked through hers, Sif only half listened to the conversation that sprung up between Thor, Jane and Darcy. Her thoughts was suddenly full of things she hadn’t expected to consider before.

 

—

 

“When will you return?”

Sif stepped out of her bathroom in Stark Tower to the sight of Loki sitting on her bed. Fully clothed in his Midgard attire, his frame stretched like a long dark shadow on the simple sheets. It had been almost two days since she last saw him. Sif walked over and plucked a pair of thin linen trousers out of the small dresser in the room that held all her clothes.

She sat on the edge of the bed beside him, hair falling over one bare shoulder like a wet, dark rope, and pushed his feet off of it.

“Shoes.”

She heard the shoes slip off his feet and hit the ground. Loki did not look away from her.

Sif shifted on the bed, tucking her legs under her. “Soon, I believe. Jane and Thor called the Bifrost down a few times a day from the roof to make sure the connection remains stable.”

“It does,” Loki said.

“Spying?”

He thinned his lips. “Merely curious.”

Sif made a noise of assent and watched as his fingers laced together on his torso. There was a tension in his brow that Sif wanted to smooth but she felt the need to tread carefully. There was one question she wanted to ask, though she already knew the answer, and it hurt more than she had thought it could.

“I do not want to ask if you would say no.”

Loki looked up from his hands. His eyes betrayed a calm that she did not feel, that she couldn’t see in the line of his shoulders. His thigh was pressed against her knee.

He untwined his fingers and stroked two of them down her arm. Drew circles on the back of her palm, lifted it near to him, forcing her to scoot closer.

“It would be most trying to say no to you. It always has been.”

Sif hated the tickle of tears that scratched at her eyes and throat. She had known.

“Will you miss me?” said Sif, her voice stronger than she felt.

“You were the only thing I missed, my lady,” he pulled at her fingers. She flicked her forefinger at his chin.

“Lie.”

He smiled under her hand. “I might have missed other things, but you are at the very top.”

“Another lie,” she laughed and then felt her eyes widen as he very nearly pulled onto his lap. Sif caught herself. One hand on his shoulder, her knees at either side of him. Sif felt face grow hot under his gaze. Her neck prickled and her lips felt very dry. She felt as if he could hear her heart beating under her skin.

“Loki?”

“I do not always lie to you.”

Sif smiled, settled herself down on his lap. She caught his chin between her fingers and lowered her lips. “I know.”

He let go of her hand and then raised both of his to pull her hair back from her shoulders, thumbs against her pulse points on either side of her neck. His mouth moved, stopped and moved again. “Will you miss Midgard?”

She let her smile curve wider as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I will miss coffee. I might have to take some with me.”

“Is that all?”

“There are other things.”

Loki gave her a bland look. Sif laughed.

“Do not fish, Loki Silvertongue.” She tugged him up and rid him of his coat. His fingers pressed against the nape of her neck, teeth nipping at her chin. “I will return of course.”

“Why? It’s a horrible realm.” He laid back and watched her unbutton his shirt. It fell open like a pair of moth’s wings, grey against the white of her sheets.

“You do not like it?” Her hands flattened on his chest, his skin had always been cooler than hers. Sif sighed at the knowledge of why now. How that knowledge hurt him and thought it heartbreaking. Her heart ached for him, but she said nothing knowing he wouldn’t want those words now. Instead she lowered her lips to where her hands rested and sat back. Looked at him lying on her bed and wished they were both home.

“It’s extremely loud; though full of interesting reading material.”

Sif pursed her lips, “Then why do you stay? I know you have your tricks to travel Yggdrasil’s branches.”

Loki shrugged, “Power, magic. I also have plans here.”

“Plans you’ve given up,” said Sif. “Unless you lied to Thor.”

Loki grinned. “I bent the truth. My plans have changed. Reconsidered.”

Lowering her body to his, she aligned his lines with hers. Felt his cool chest against hers heated from the shower, let his fingers drift down her spine. Sif’s arms folded just under his collarbone.

“And what are they now?” One fingernail traced the shadows of his throat.

His lips brushed at her temple and she felt the line of tension in his mouth soften. He did not answer her then, but he would later, she knew that much.

Turning her head to rest her cheek against the hollow of his throat, Sif exhaled heavily, grinning at the gooseflesh that rose in a wave across his skin. “I would have you with me in any realm.” She closed her eyes but as her breathing evened out she heard,

“I would too, Sif.”

 

—

 

He was gone by the time she woke up. The mirror glowed with his message.

Sif bit her lips, read it twice over, thinking, deciding, before her hand touched the mirror and the words faded.

 

—

 

In the end, it was their choice.

 

—

 

Two days later, Sif stood on Stark Tower’s roof, on what they called the helipad.

Jane, Darcy and Thor surrounded her. She wore the clothes which she had arrived in. Pepper and Barton stood off to the side. Sif had already said her goodbyes to them.

She looked at the other three. Jane and Darcy rushed forward at the same time giving her a double hug. She met Thor’s eyes over their heads and laughed at his grin.

“I will miss you two as well.” Sif hugged them back.

Darcy pouted. “I can’t believe you’re leaving me with the kissy face duo and Team Superhero.”

Sif laughed gently and tugged at Darcy’s hat. “I will not be gone forever. With the Bifrost open, I can visit whenever I please.”

Darcy’s eyes went big behind her glasses. “You better.”

“I’ll miss you, Sif. I want to be sorry I dragged you down here, but I really can’t be,” said Jane.

Sif nodded in kind. “I feel the same, Jane.”

The two women stepped back and Thor came up and embraced. Sif could not help but think it had been years since Thor picked her up in such a manner. She hit him on the shoulder when he dropped her back on the ground.

“Your mother is going to be heartbroken you have not returned with me,” she told him.

Thor’s smile shifted but he glanced up to the sky. “I will be home soon, tell her that. And tell her of Lok and of you and Loki—she would be happy to know. Also tell her, I do not wish to cause her pain, but I must remain here for a while.”

Sif touched her fist to her chest plate and nodded. “You know I will.”

Thor returned the gesture and Sif called for Hiemdall.

The Bifrost opened moments later and carried her home.

 

—

 

Her returned was heralded. Her friends circled around her at once. Sif now had brunch with the queen with not one, but two, empty chairs. She saw the grief in the queen’s eyes but her smile when she spoke of her sons — plural, present, alive, both of them — was as warm as Midgard’s sun. When she spoke of Loki, the queen had a small smile on her face, that led Sif to suspect that the knowledge of her relationship with the younger prince had not been such a secret to all.

The Allmother had smiled, “I always knew my sons would find worthy, remarkable partners.” Her hand reached over the table and covered Sif’s.

Sif was humbled enough to flush.

It was to the Allmother that Sif first confessed her intentions to.

Second, to her parents.

They had not been as gracious as the Allmother, but her mother kissed her cheeks while her father strode out of the room. She had known for many years now that it would be near impossible to please her father with her choices. Instead of dwelling on that, Sif let her mother clutch at her and let herself be kissed and fussed over.

The Warriors Three were flummoxed when she explained what she planned, but after some mead, they seemed more at ease about the whole thing. Fandral mourned drunkenly on how Midgard was taking all his friends while Volstagg sang a rousing song of farewell. Over their mead Sif and Hogun shared a smile and twist of lips, respectively.

 

—

 

She’d been home just a week and already she was riding out to the Bifrost once again. It stood intact but not complete, the great golden dome half finished, but she knew they did not need it any longer. Jane had strengthened and recreated the bond between realms, though Heimdall’s sword still turned the key to the doorways.

He saw her approach much like he had weeks before. She mused on what he thought about her return.

“Leaving so soon after your return, Lady Sif?”

Sif grinned. “Unfinished business, great Heimdall.”

His mouth twitched and his hands tightened on this sword. “Then I hope for it to turn out well for you, lady.”

“Thank you,” Sif said. “If it pleases you, I ask you to open the Bifrost. Do you know where I go?”

“I do indeed.” Heimdall nodded. The sword shone bright under his hands and he turned it on the rebuilt platform. The colours of the Bifrost flashed and then its light illuminated them both.

The ground changed under her feet.

 

—

 

Sif blinked up at the brightness in the sky and breathed deep. Still not as sweet as Asgard’s, but her lungs filled with air that was clean and smooth. A hand touched her elbow and she whirled around. Her hair, unbound today, caught and flew in the wind.

“You are here,” Loki spoke, his hand smoothing up and down her forearm.

The corners of her lips turned up with fondness and amusement. “Did I not say I would be?”

Loki slid an arm around her waist, as she mirrored him. He touched his lips to her nose, cheek and chin. “You did.” He began walking forward. “Come, it’s a bit of a walk.”

“Your mother expects correspondence from you soon and she requested for me to ask if you had seen you brother lately,” Sif said casually as they moved from her landing site. The tips of Loki’s ears reddened. “Well?”

“She’ll get her letter and Thor is fine.” Loki pouted. Sif laughed. He added, “First, I have some things to show you.”

Sif tipped her head up, lips brushing his jaw. “Very well.” Just then, a thought popped into her head. “You know, I still have one of your throwing knives with me. It’s currently tucked in my boot. I’ve gotten quite fond of it, I’ll have you know.” She lifted her hand to shade her eyes from the day’s glare and watched his mouth softened and widen.

Loki laughed softly. “It is yours, Lady Sif.”

Her fingers brushed at the tips of his around her waist.

They kept walking forward.


End file.
